Wayfair crashes 31% as the online furniture retailer says it lost more than 5 million customers last year and posts wider quarterly loss

• Wayfair stock plunged as much as 31% Thursday after the online furniture retailer said it lost 5 milion customers in 2022. 
• Its 22.1 million active customers is closer to the count it had at the start of the COVID pandemic. 
• Wayfair reported a wider loss for its most recent quarter. 

Stock in Wayfair sank Thursday as the company posted a wider fourth-quarter loss and said it lost millions of customers during 2022, with the decline in customer traffic coming after the pandemic sparked a buying spree if furniture and other household goods. 

Wayfair shares fell as much as 31% to $34.33 then pared the decline to 23%, closing at $38.33. 

Investors slashed the price to a near seven-week low following the release of the company's fourth-quarter financial results. 

Wayfair said active customers in 2022 fell by 19% to 22.1 million year over year. The company, whose brands include AllModern and Joss & Main, had 27.3 million active customers in the year-ago period. 

 The number of customers in 2022 was closer to the 21.1 million that Wayfair had at the end of March 2020, when the COVID pandemic was accelerating worldwide. 

Later in 2020, in the fourth quarter ended in December, the customer count surged 51% to more than 31 million. Sales of living and office furniture, decorations, and other home improvement products soared for many retailers including Wayfair as COVID lockdowns forced millions of people to work and study at home. 

Wayfair said sales in its most recent quarter fell by 4.6% to $3.1 billion. Its adjusted loss pf $1.71 a share was wider than $0.92 a year ago. Analysts had expected a smaller loss of $1.61 a share.