BOSTON - E-commerce furniture and home goods giant Wayfair has seen profits dip nearly $1 billion over the year of 2019.

 

The company's stock was down more than 18 percent last week after a report on its fourth-quarter performance was posted. The Q4 loss amounted to $330 million. Shares have fallen significantly in recent months - dropping $3.54 per share in the fourth quarter alone. 

 

On February 13, Wayfair announced a layoff of 550 employees, or 3 percent of its total workforce. 350 of those employees worked at the company's headquarters in Boston.

 

Sales for the year hit $2.5 billion. That number is a 26 percent increase, but still shows its weakest growth in a while.

 

Wayfair is hopeful though. The company says the number of active customers in its direct retail business reached more than 20 million by the end of Q4 - a 34 percent increase over the previous year. Wayfair also said it will not see the benefits of the layoffs until Q2.

 

Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah says he sees plenty of opportunities for growth in U.S. and Europe and have "barely scrated the surface of our total addressable market."