Beyond to open Overstock stores, test BuyBuy Baby location
Beyond Inc. is dipping its foot into brick-and-mortar retail.
The parent company of Overstock, BuyBuy Baby and Bed Bath & Beyond revealed on its first-quarter earnings call that it has decided to open “at least” four Overstock stores. The physical locations would be a first for Overstock.
Speaking to analysts on the call, Beyond executive chairman and principal executive officer Marcus Lemonis said the Overstock stores would be strategically placed geographically so that vendors and customers can ship product to and return product in “a more efficient manner, which over time will improve our financial performance primarily through margin improvement and returns.”
In addition, Beyond will open a “test” store for BuyBuy Baby, most likely in the Nashville market. The company acquired the global rights of the baby goods brand for $5 million in February. (Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankrupt parent company sold BuyBuy Baby to one of its suppliers in July 2023).
Beyond will also. expand the baby goods brand via its October 2024 deal with home décor retailer Kirkland’s, whereby Kirkland’s will become Beyond's exclusive brick-and-mortar operator and licensee for new, smaller-format “neighborhood” Bed Bath & Beyond stores nationwide.
As to Bed, Bath & Beyond’s return to brick-and-mortar, a new format, dubbed Bed Bath and Beyond Home, will launch in a “very, very low capex way”, Lemonis said on the call.
Bed Bath & Beyond Home “looks a lot like Kirkland’s,” he told analysts, and incorporates a lot of the products that Bed Bath & Beyond is currently selling online. It includes a “small furniture pieces, a little bit more textiles, a little bit more décor,” he said, adding that the store is “very different from the true blue store that all of us have known for years, which focused on bed, bath, kitchen and small accessories.”
On the call, Lemonis made it clear that Beyond is not committing to major store growth.
“Beyond is not preparing today to go open a bunch of stores,” he said. “We want our dollars to be spent on technology, investing in the customer experience, figuring out how to exploit and get more out of our blockchain assets and looking to acquire other valuable IP in the same family and home space, so that we can then take those brands to our investment vehicle of Kirkland’s and see those brands come to life.”
