Furniture retailer (NYSE: W) stock gained 19% in May according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Wall Street celebrated progress in its turnaround despite a harsh operating climate for the home improvement industry.

Wayfair was a pandemic darling whose star plunged when people stopped focusing on home improvement. Wayfair's sales declined for nine straight quarters before finally breaking that trend in the 2023 third quarter.

But the way the business nearly collapsed revealed ongoing internal issues in Wayfair's operations. Notably, as it scaled, its expenses continued to increase -- it was working too hard to generate growth. It became a large, clunky organization despite its asset-light model that lends itself to wide margins and profitability. It works with a dropship model and doesn't hold inventory on its books, and it invests heavily in its platform through technology and marketing. Instead of profitability through scale, Wayfair became bogged down in bureaucracy, and things fell apart when it no longer had the money coming in to fund its grand ambitions.

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Source Fool.com