Overstock.com brings Bed, Bath & Beyond back from the dead as online-only retailer

US homeware retailer Bed, Bath & Beyond has relaunched online two months after being bought out of bankruptcy.

The company, which declared bankruptcy earlier this year, was acquired by online closeout merchandiser Overstock.com in a $21.5 million deal for its intellectual property and digital assets. There are currently no plans for the brand to return to its historical big box retail format, though Overstock.com chief executive Jonathan Johnson told CNN “never say never” when asked.

The site effectively serves as a new face for Overstock.com, which now redirects to BedBathAndBeyond.com. Johnson separately told NBC News that this decision was made in order to capitalise on the household brand name with Overstock.com’s business model.

He said: People view Overstock as liquidation, which is what we were 25 years ago when we started, but that’s not what we’ve been for the past two decades. We’ve looked at Bed Bath and Beyond jealousy for several years; we really liked their name, and it was an iconic brand people loved.”

Over 60,000 products have been added to the site, and members of the former Bed Bath & Beyond loyalty scheme will have access to up to $50 in unused loyalty reward points.

Johnson also told CNN that the company is mulling a corporate name change. He said that the Overstock name is "probably not a fit anymore" and is concerned that the BBBY ticker of Bed Bath & Beyond was a "tainted ticker of a meme stock gone bankrupt."

Bed Bath & Beyond filed for bankruptcy in April after accumulating $5.2 billion of debt against assets of $4.4 billion. The company struggled to keep up with online shopping and was unable to compete with broader supermarket chains like Walmart and Target. It also made a disastrous attempt to pivot away from branded goods and towards own-brand products which ultimately failed to sell.

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