Wayfair Trims Workforce

(RTTNews) - Online furniture retailer Wayfair Inc. is cutting 550 jobs, or about 3 percent of its workforce, reports on Thursday quoted a company spokesperson as saying.

The job cuts will impact about 350 employees at Wayfair's corporate headquarters in Boston. The company has more than 16,000 employees globally.

Wayfair's shares tumbled 14 percent in Thursday's trading session following news of the job cuts.

Wayfair was founded in 2002 and went public in October 2014. The retailer has been struggling with high costs to run the business and is yet to report a profit in any quarter. Instead, the quarterly losses have been widening amid the high costs of importing furniture and home goods from China. Wayfair also has to deal with stiff competition from furniture retailer Ikea and e-commerce giant Amazon.

In late October, Wayfair reported a net loss for the third quarter that widened to $272.04 million or $2.94 per share from $151.73 million or $1.69 per share in the year-ago period. Adjusted net loss for the quarter was $2.23 per share, compared to loss of $1.28 per share a year ago.

However, net revenue rose to $2.31 billion from $1.71 billion last year.

Wayfair will release its financial results for the fourth quarter before the opening of the market on February 28, 2020. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report a loss of $2.64 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Among other retailers, this month, department store chain Macy's said it plans to close 125 stores over the next three years and to cut around 2,000 jobs as it struggles to boost sales amid a weakening retail climate.

Kohl's Corp. said Wednesday that it is laying off 250 employees as it restructures parts of its business following a weak holiday season.