Overstock sees a future in calling itself Bed Bath & Beyond

Soon Overstock.com will become Bed Bath & Beyond – at least in digital form.

Overstock, which paid $21.5 million last week to acquire the bankrupt retailer’s intellectual property, said Wednesday it would operate its website under the name Bed Bath & Beyond.

The change will roll out in Canada in early July. Starting in August, about a month after the last Bed Bath & Beyond stores closed in the United States, customers in the country who visit overstock.com will be redirected to bedbathandbeyond.com.

Overstock’s mobile app and rewards program are also getting a new name. Company executives plan to eventually bring back Bed Bath & Beyond’s popular wedding registry.

As Overstock moves the assets of the bankrupt retailers into its own operations, Overstock is considering completely renaming its company, said Jonathan Johnson, the company’s CEO. It could come down to Bed Bath & Beyond, he added, but other names are being considered.

“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked over the years when we’re going to change Overstock’s name,” said Mr. Johnson, who has been at the helm since 2019.

For years, Overstock.com has been trying to find a way to update its image as a liquidator, and that’s how it started in 1999. The company has since stopped selling only basement furniture at bargain prices, but eventually Mr. Johnson said , its name held it back in the eyes of consumers.

We bet that the name of Bed Bath & Beyond can change that.

“We will probably have both logos for a while, but the goal is to transition to Bed Bath & Beyond as soon as possible,” said Mr. Johnson.

When the home goods retailer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April, Mr. Johnson an opportunity for his own company. In 2018, when Patrick Byrne, Overstock’s CEO at the time, was looking to sell retail to focus on cryptocurrency technology, Bed Bath & Beyond was a potential buyer, Mr. Johnson said. That deal never happened.

The tables turned when the pandemic hit and Overstock sales skyrocketed. Bankers approached the company with the suggestion to buy Bed Bath & Beyond.

On the other hand, Bed Bath & Beyond was financially battered by the pandemic. Like many retailers, it had to temporarily close its stores, and its supply chain shrank as the company tried to keep up with demand for online shopping. Sales fell dramatically as company executives made several merchandising and marketing missteps.

“We’ve looked and looked, and last year when Bed Bath & Beyond got into trouble, we started thinking, ‘Gosh, if it goes out of business, maybe we’ll have the opportunity to buy what we like without buying what rather made us hesitate’. ,'” Mr. Johnson said. (Overstock has not purchased Bed Bath & Beyond’s retail locations or inventory.)

In the week after the bid for Bed Bath & Beyond’s assets went public, Overstock added more than 100,000 bedding and bath items to its site as sellers scrambled to do business with the company. This was after Overstock courted them for months and made concessions such as agreeing to keep stock in warehouses, a rare move for the online retailer. Now, Mr. Johnson said, he doesn’t think his company will have to do that to win over sellers.

The acquisition also gives Overstock a wealth of customer data. It has information on what Bed Bath & Beyond shoppers have bought online and how often they’ve visited the website – a useful resource as Overstock struggles with its own declining sales. On Wednesday, the company said it expected second-quarter sales to fall 20 percent from the year before.

Overstock sales peaked in 2021, as more people bought furniture during the height of the pandemic. Its active customers are also dwindling, and in April it said it had 4.8 million users. Bed Bath & Beyond’s active customer list for its online shoppers is twice as large.

Overstock expects the number of customers to increase in the coming months, while the average amount shoppers spend may fall as the small appliances and home goods Bed Bath & Beyond was known for are less expensive than the couches and patio tables Overstock normally sells. The online retailer will also spend more on marketing to make consumers aware of its brand changes.

This deal comes as American consumers spend less on furniture and more on dining out and travel. Sales of furniture and home furnishing stores fell nearly 3 percent in the first five months of the year from a year earlier, according to the US Department of Commerce. factswhich is not adjusted for inflation.

“Opportunities like these come up every once in a while, and sometimes during tough times,” Johnson said. “Will the category still be difficult in the short to medium term? I think so, but I think getting all these new customers and rebranding helps us break through some of that headwind.”

During the integration process, Overstock plans to hire employees with expertise in marketing, merchandising and technology. The company has attempted to recruit former Bed Bath & Beyond employees.

As for the fate of Bed Bath & Beyond’s famous 20 percent coupon?

“We will always be a couponer; we will always do the site sales,” said mr. Johnson. “Whether we run 20 percent as often as Bed Bath – probably not. But it will be there for the beginning.”