Indexbit Exchange:Bed Bath & Beyond returns as online only home furnishings brand

Overstock to rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond after buying brand's intellectual property

Bed Bath & Beyond, the home goods retailer that closed its remaining stores after filing for bankruptcy in April, relaunched Tuesday as an online-only brand under new owner Overstock.com.

Overstock's website now redirects visitors to BedBathandBeyond.com, where the former big-box retailer is again selling bathroom, bedroom and kitchen-related products. The online store lets customers peruse a larger array of home furnishings and fixes some problems that were afflicting both Overstock and Bed Bath, according to Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson. 

"Overstock has a great business model with a name that does not reflect its focus on home," he said in a statement. "Bed Bath & Beyond is a much-loved and well-known consumer brand, which had an outdated business model that needed modernizing."

Overstock bought Bed Bath & Beyond in June for $21.5 million during a bankruptcy court-supervised auction. The purchase didn't include Bed Bath & Beyond's remaining brick-and-mortar stores, which closed earlier this summer.

The revived Bed Bath & Beyond also said it has reinstated points that shoppers had earned under the company's former loyalty program and refreshed the store's mobile app.

Overstock can use whatever bump in its business Bed Bath & Beyond can give it. Johnson told analysts during an earnings call last week that Overstock's active customer and order frequency fell 29% to $4.6 million during the second quarter compared to the year-ago period.

"We expect that over time, the relaunch of Bed Bath & Beyond brand, growing mobile app adoption and enhanced loyalty offerings will help improve this metric," he told analysts.

Bed Bath  & Beyond failed amid a wave of retail bankruptcies in recent years as the economy slowed and Americans became less willing to spend. Cineworld Group (the parent company of Regal Cinema), Party City and Vice Media are just a handful of brands on a longer list of Chapter 11 filings so far this year. Tuesday Morning and Revlon went bankrupt last year.

Bed Bath & Beyond opened as a privately held business in 1971 and went public in 1992. As the U.S. economy boomed, the company had a 15-year run of earnings that met or beat Wall Street expectations. But its momentum slowed with the explosion of online shopping. Before filing for bankruptcy, Bed Bath and its children's focused store, Buy Buy Baby, had experienced years of declining sales. 

After changing its website name, the Overstock brand will quietly dissolve over time, company officials said.

Johnson told the Associated Press that the rebrand was necessary because Overstock still confuses some customers and suppliers who believe it is a liquidator, which is how the company got its start in 1999. It transformed in 2004 into a general merchandise retailer, selling a wide variety of items. In 2021, Overstock fine-tuned its strategy to focus on furniture and home decor, doing away with items like clothing and jewelry.

Bed Bath & Beyond's relaunch comes nearly a month after the company made a similar move in Canada. Johnson told the AP that the company has added roughly 600,000 new products since last month.

—The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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• Bed Bath & Beyond

Khristopher J. Brooks

Khristopher J. Brooks is a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch covering business, consumer and financial stories that range from economic inequality and housing issues to bankruptcies and the business of sports.

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