{"id":34169,"date":"2023-08-02T11:08:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T15:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=34169"},"modified":"2023-08-02T11:08:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T15:08:28","slug":"overstock-is-now-bed-bath-beyond-heres-what-you-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/08\/02\/overstock-is-now-bed-bath-beyond-heres-what-you-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Overstock is now Bed Bath & Beyond. Here\u2019s what you need to know."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bed Bath & Beyond is back \u2026 kind of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of Tuesday, Overstock officially swapped its name out for the now-defunct housewares chain. Customers searching for either retailer online will wind up on the same landing page, where both companies\u2019 logos will be displayed for the next few months.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Overstock\u00a0\u2014\u00a0once an online repository for closeout furniture, home decor and more \u2014 acquired Bed Bath & Beyond\u2019s intellectual property for $21.5 million in June, about two months after the\u00a0company\u00a0filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The\u00a0rebranding is expected to build on both companies\u2019 strengths, said chief executive Jonathan Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe thought we had a good operating model but a bad name; we thought Bed Bath & Beyond had a great name but a bad operating model,\u201d he said. Overstock, unlike Bed Bath & Beyond, doesn\u2019t own its inventory. Rather, third-party suppliers ship the items directly to customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overstock has been testing the transition in Canada since June. Now, U.S. shoppers will experience the same. Here\u2019s what you need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would Overstock want to rebrand as Bed Bath & Beyond?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bed Bath & Beyond has strong brand recognition and a fervent customer base \u2014 two things Overstock needed, said Mindy Weinstein, founder and chief executive of the digital marketing company Market MindShift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very smart move from a marketing perspective,\u201d she said, citing in particular the savings. \u201cThey cut so many of the painful processes and time it takes to rebrand yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Overstock\u2019s name has \u201cbeen a liability for them,\u201d said Barbara Kahn, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Wharton School. Consumers still associate the brand with its original business of selling surplus or returned inventory, even though it moved away from that model years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same was true for suppliers, Johnson said, noting that some brands were hesitant to sell their product on the website for fear of being associated with liquidation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers may also still associate Overstock with its former chief executive Patrick Byrne, who resigned in 2019 after saying he dated a Russian agent and was involved in a \u201cdeep state\u201d investigation of the 2016 election. Soon after, he and another executive were named in an investor\u2019s lawsuit accusing Overstock of securities fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company already is seeing benefits from the rebrand, with suppliers it had been courting for years now \u201cknocking on our door,\u201d Johnson said. More than 600,000 new products have been added to the website since the Canada rollout started, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, there are risks to such a major rebrand, according to Kahn. The company \u201chas to meet customer\u2019s expectations\u201d of what they would expect to find at Bed Bath & Beyond, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the company has a lot of ground to make up. Second-quarter earnings<\/a> released last week showed active customers dropped nearly 30 percent year-over-year and revenue declined 20 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remind me \u2014 what happened to Bed Bath & Beyond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During its heyday, Bed Bath & Beyond was the go-to destination for housewares, small appliances, wedding registries and college dorm supplies. But the company had been steadily losing relevancy for more than a decade, as rivals such as Walmart, Target and Amazon doubled down on homewares. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post. Interim CEO Patty Stonesifer sits on Amazon\u2019s board.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, corporate missteps and bad investments started the company down a road of patchy inventory and dwindling customer interest. Its former chief executive Mark Tritton, who took over in 2019, made bold steps to revamp the company\u2019s private-label home brand, shifting away from popular lines to promote Bed Bath & Beyond\u2019s private label offerings. The endeavor went nowhere, deterring customers and tarnishing relationships with suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Bed Bath & Beyond benefited from a boost during the coronavirus pandemic, the company failed to capitalize on the wave of consumer spending. When the economic climate shifted and stubbornly high inflation reduced discretionary purchases, the retailer fared worse than its competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the latter half of 2022, many vendors decided it was too risky to give the company merchandise on credit, compounding its inventory problems. So with fewer items on shelves, many customers stopped visiting stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can I buy the same things I could get at the original Bed Bath & Beyond?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the most part, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Overstock\u2019s inventory \u2014 mainly furniture \u2014 falls more under the \u201cbeyond\u201d umbrella, Johnson said the company has expanded its offerings in the bed and bath categories. A legacy Overstock customer will notice more small appliances, such as toasters and stand mixers, and bedding options, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there are some products that won\u2019t be available on the website. Since Bed Bath & Beyond shuttered all its brick-and-mortar stores and Overstock is solely online, Johnson said that it\u2019s doing away with single, low-cost items that \u201cprobably [don\u2019t] make sense for us to ship,\u201d such as Tide Pods, K-Cups and one-off orders like a $3 spatula. Instead, customers will be able to buy a set of spatulas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have an Overstock credit card. Can I still use it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Cardholders should be able to use the card as usual \u2014 at Bed Bath & Beyond, on the app and anywhere else Mastercard is accepted. You will still earn 5 percent back on Bed Bath & Beyond purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will there still be coupons?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes and no. While Bed Bath & Beyond\u2019s classic 20-percent-off coupon no longer exists, Overstock is still offering promotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To kick off the rebrand, customers who sign up for the loyalty program will receive a 20-percent-off coupon for a single item. Those who download the new app will be able to redeem a 25-percent-off discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company is also reinstating as much as $50 worth of each Bed Bath & Beyond customer\u2019s unused Welcome Reward points, which were erased as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, as well as a free year-long membership worth $19.95, Johnson added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want those customers feeling comfortable coming back and encourage them to come back,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But don\u2019t expect to receive coupons in your inbox or the mail. Johnson contends that Overstock offers lower prices than Bed Bath & Beyond did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019ll start out with some big promotions and we\u2019ll always continue to do promotions and couponing, I think the Bed Bath customer will see better, sharper prices, even pre-coupon, and certainly after adding coupons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bed Bath & Beyond is back \u2026 kind of. As of Tuesday, Overstock officially swapped its name out for the now-defunct housewares chain. Customers searching for either retailer online will wind… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[5558],"class_list":["post-34169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-overstock-is-now-bed-bath-beyond"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}