Bed Bath & Beyond, the iconic home goods retailer that declared bankruptcy earlier this year, has made a triumphant return to the market as an online store under new ownership. Overstock.com, the company that purchased Bed Bath & Beyond's intellectual property assets for $21.5 million, officially relaunched the brand as BedBathandBeyond.com in the United States on Tuesday.
Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson expressed confidence in the venture, stating that the goal was to combine the beloved Bed Bath & Beyond brand with Overstock's successful business model to create a business that can soar. The revamped e-commerce site boasts 600,000 new products, many of them brand names in the kitchen, bed, and bath categories, and they are less expensive than before.
Johnson believes that despite Bed Bath & Beyond's financial troubles, the brand still holds tremendous potential. The company's outdated business model needed modernizing, and Overstock, which thrived as an asset-light business, was getting weighed down by its name. The merger of the two entities is expected to resolve these issues, creating an even better asset-light, e-commerce retailer with an expanded home furnishing and furniture assortment.
The new website has already seen a higher return on ad spend and higher conversion rate on its newly revised site in Canada, where it launched at the end of June. All product lines saw increased revenue, but kitchen, bed, and bath products have seen the most increase in sales since relaunching.
Customers visiting the new website will see up to $50 of loyalty reward points reinstated from former Bed Bath & Beyond customer accounts. Other perks include 20% off, transfer of membership, along with all current rewards, for members of Club O, Overstock's former loyalty program, to a new Welcome Rewards loyalty program; and 25% off initial purchases for anyone who downloads the new Bed Bath & Beyond mobile app.
Johnson is confident that the new venture will pay off, stating, "Our view is bad management can kill companies, but it doesn't kill brands. The Bed Bath brand is still strongly associated with home, and still much loved."
