Bed Bath & Beyond’s Dot-com Is Back
MILAN — Utah-based Overstock, which recently saved the Bed Bath & Beyond name from extinction, on Tuesday unveiled the Bed Bath & Beyond U.S. site.
From Tuesday on, Overstock.com will officially rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond and all Overstock.com visitors will be redirected to BedBathandBeyond.com, the company said in a statement. Overstock chief executive officer Jonathan Johnson’s new title is Bed Bath & Beyond CEO and the company said “the Overstock brand will sunset over time.”
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Starting Tuesday, the Bed Bath & Beyond e-commerce site will carry kitchen, bed and bath products, as well as home furniture and home decor, including rugs and lighting, among other categories. Overstock characterizes its products as “smart value,” or value for money.
Marking the site launch, and related mobile app, Bed Bath & Beyond is offering promotions and special deals to customers, such as a 25 percent off welcome coupon for mobile shoppers, as well as new loyalty programs, including the Welcome Rewards, set to merge preexisting initiatives at both Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond.
“This is a historic day for Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock — and for the broader e-commerce industry,” Johnson said. “Through this rebranding, we’re breathing new life into Bed Bath & Beyond, positioning it as an asset-light, e-commerce retailer with an expanded home furnishings and furniture assortment. Think of it as Bed Bath & — a much bigger, better — Beyond,” he added.
In June, the firm won a bid for Bed Bath & Beyond’s key assets, including the former retailer’s website, domain names, database and loyalty-program data for $21.5 million. Set to benefit from adopting one of the most famous names in U.S. retail history, Overstock tested the waters with a new Canadian site currently operating under the Bed Bath & Beyond domain.
“The acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand is the beginning of a new phase of growth for us,” Johnson told WWD in an exclusive interview.
“The successful launch and early performance of our Bed Bath & Beyond business in Canada has been encouraging. The Bed Bath & Beyond brand is strong. In Canada, customers want to buy — and are comfortable buying — from the new Bed Bath & Beyond website,” he added.
When asked about the customer experience, he said the selection and assortment will be similar to Bed Bath & Beyond in its heyday.
“I think it’ll largely feel like the similar experience. So we have been adding more bed and bath product and kitchen product over the last year. And since we were announced as the stalking horse in the bankruptcy [Bed Bath & Beyond process], we’ve now added more than 500,000 products, most of them kind of Bed Bath & Beyond-related,” he said.
For now, Johnson said the firm is not looking to open physical stores.
“I think it’s a wait-and-see. One of the things that drove this transaction for us is Overstock has a great asset [in] its business model…but we had a name that was kind of dragging us down. Bed Bath & Beyond is an iconic and beloved brand, but its business model had dragged it down. Taking the two things that were drags away and putting the two good pieces together is exciting. Now does that mean we’ll never go into physical stores? No, but it’s not part of our current foreseeable future,” he said.
— With contributions from Martino Carrera
