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Jonathan Johnson, CEO, Overstock.com, June 29, 2023.
Scott Mill | CNBC
shares Overstock.com It rose nearly 20% on Thursday, a day after the home goods retailer said it would change the name of its website to Bed Bath & Beyond after buying the collapsed retailer’s intellectual property and digital assets via a bankruptcy auction.
Shares closed the session north of $30 a share, giving Overstock a market valuation of about $1.3 billion.
Overstock’s CEO, Jonathan Johnson, said the Overstock name reflects the company’s previous liquidation-based model and is inconsistent with the type of products it sells now.
“We started out over 20 years ago as a liquidator and I became a general dealer. We’re now a furniture and home furnishing company and there was a lot of headwind with the Overstock name, a headwind with customers who were confused about what it was and what we were selling, a headwind with suppliers who didn’t. They essentially want to sell if it’s related to a liquidation,” Johnson told CNBC’s “The Exchange.”
Johnson said Bed Bath & Beyond maintains strong brand awareness, despite mismanagement and eventual bankruptcy.
Johnson said the brands already share an overlapping clientele, which will help smooth the transition.
“We’re going to make that transition slowly as the Overstock customer will come to the new website and will get to know it, and so will the Bed Bath & Beyond customer. And then over time, we’ll finish off the Overstock feel,” he added. .
Johnson said shoppers can expect Bed Bath & Beyond’s popular coupons to continue, at least during a transition period, but he indicated on a call with analysts earlier Thursday that the company wouldn’t offer deep or deep discounts in the long term.
“One of the things that Bed Bath & Beyond customers will realize is that our no-coupon pricing is really good. And I think people are going to be very surprised by the deals that Overstock and now Bed Bath & Beyond can offer and offer,” he said.
The new Bed Bath & Beyond website is set to relaunch in Canada over the next week, and a website, mobile app, and loyalty program are expected to launch in the United States in the coming weeks.
Excess stock is up 60% so far this year.
Shares of Overstock.com soared after announcing the site’s name change to Bed Bath & Beyond.
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