What happened

Shares of Vipshop Holdings (VIPS 0.13%) crashed today, down by 10% as of 1:10 p.m. EDT, after the company reported first-quarter earnings. The results beat analyst expectations, but Vipshop's guidance disappointed investors.

So what

Revenue in the first quarter was 28.4 billion yuan ($4.3 billion), ahead of the $28 billion yuan that the market was expecting. That translated into adjusted earnings per American depositary share (ADS) of $0.37, similarly beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 per ADS. The Chinese e-commerce technology company said gross merchandise volume (GMV) jumped 59% to 46.1 billion yuan and active customers reached 45.8 million. Total orders during the quarter were 175.5 million.

Red stock chart going down

Image source: Getty Images.

"We are keenly focused on strengthening our leadership in China's discount retail market through the solid execution of our merchandising strategy," CEO Eric Shen said in a statement. "Our close and long-term relationships with our key suppliers in apparel-related categories give us the advantage in continuing to deepen our collaboration with them through Made-for-Vipshop products, which will further differentiate us from other marketplace platforms and increase the stickiness of our customers over time."

Now what

Vipshop's outlook for the second quarter calls for revenue to grow 20% to 25% to a range of 28.9 billion yuan to 30.1 billion yuan ($4.49 billion to $4.68 billion based on current exchange rates), which is light compared to the 30.26 billion yuan that analysts are looking for.