Utah’s Overstock.com rebranding under newly acquired Bed, Bath & Beyond moniker

Art Raymond
·3 min read
A Bed Bath & Beyond store is seen in Flowood, Miss., on Monday, April 24, 2023. Utah-based Overstock.com acquired Bed, Bath & Beyond after the failed retailer’s bankruptcy.
A Bed Bath & Beyond store is seen in Flowood, Miss., on Monday, April 24, 2023. Utah-based Overstock.com acquired Bed, Bath & Beyond after the failed retailer’s bankruptcy. | Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press

Utah-based furniture and home goods giant Overstock.com isn’t wasting any time making use of the Bed, Bath & Beyond branding, intellectual property and customer database it acquired for $21 million via an auction bid approved by the failed retailer’s bankruptcy judge just on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Overstock announced a rebranding plan to replace “Overstock.com”, the brand it has used since the company’s inception in 1999, with the widely known Bed, Bath and Beyond name.

Overstock says within the next week, it will be set to re-launch the Bed Bath & Beyond domain in Canada, followed weeks later by the re-launch of a refreshed website, mobile app and loyalty program in the United States. According to the company, new and existing customers of both Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond will experience a single online shopping destination — bedbathandbeyond.ca in Canada and bedbathandbeyond.com in the U.S. — for its furniture and home furnishings products.

“This acquisition is a significant and transformative step for us,” Overstock CEO Jonathan Johnson said in a press release. “Bed Bath & Beyond is an iconic consumer brand, well-known in the home retail marketplace. The combination of our winning asset-light business model and the high awareness and loyalty of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand will improve the customer experience and position the Company for accelerated market share growth.”

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Assets acquired by Overstock in the bankruptcy auction include Bed, Bath & Beyond’s website and domain names, trademarks, trade names, patents, customer database, loyalty program data and other brand assets related to the Bed Bath & Beyond banner. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey approved Overstock’s winning bid at a sale hearing on June 27.

“Combining the strengths of the Overstock operational model and the Bed Bath & Beyond brand will create a powerful synergy,” Johnson said. “I’m excited for consumers to experience the new Bed Bath and an even bigger and better Beyond.”

According to Overstock, the transaction excludes any assets associated with the brick-and-mortar business of Bed Bath & Beyond including store leases, inventory, warehousing and logistics infrastructure. Bed, Bath & Beyond’s Buy Buy Baby and Harmon banners and associated assets are being auctioned off separately.

Bed, Bath & Beyond’s value had been on a downward slope since its stock hit a top price of around $81 per share in early 2014. In April of this year, that stock price had declined to just pennies a share and the company filed for bankruptcy protections. Analysts have pointed to a myriad of missteps by company executives, including a failed shift from third-party products to store branded goods and a massive stock buyback program.

Overstock.com saw a surge of business amid COVID-19 restrictions that provided similar boosts to a wide swath of online retailers. But order volumes have chilled since then. In 2023 first-quarter results reported in April, Overstock saw $381 million in revenues the first three months of the year, a 29% drop from the same period in 2022. Per CNBC, the e-commerce retailer posted a net loss of $10 million. Still, the retailer’s results came in ahead of some estimates from industry watchers.

Overstock’s acquisition of Bed, Bath & Beyond’s branding and intellectual property has driven a surge in stock price for the Midvale-based company over the past few days. Shares of Overstock were trading at $29.44 per share around midday on Thursday, up over 18% since the start of trading on Wednesday.