Zulily posts $1.2B in sales in 2014

Zulily achieved $1.2 billion in annual sales during 2014, but Wall Street was none too happy with that.

The flash-sale website operator expects first-quarter sales of $300 million to $320 million, compared with the $371 million estimate from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters. For the full year, it expects $1.5 billion to $1.65 billion, compared with an analyst estimate of $1.75 billion.

We closed out the year with significant growth across the business. We increased year-over-year net sales by 72% and drove strong profitability,” said Zulily CEO Darrell Cavens. “Our goal is to build zulily into one of the most innovative and profitable consumer retail internet businesses of our time. We have set clear business priorities for 2015 that will create an even better experience for our customers while also leveraging the strong unit economics that we’ve been building in the business to continue to deliver surprise and delight to our customers each day.”

Active customers at the end of the quarter were 4.9 million, up 54% from a year earlier.

Zulily has become one of the country’s fastest-growing Internet retailers by selling heavily discounted merchandise from children’s toys to women’s apparel to home goods through limited-time sales that usually last three days.

The company also announced that CFO Marc Stolzman, who joined Zulily in 2012, is leaving the company.

Looking ahead, Zulily said it expects revenues of $1.5 billion to $1.65 billion in 2015.