Despite the drop, the online-only retailer reported some positive developments for the quarter ended June 30. Revenue was up 4% from the previous quarter. Beyond credited a 35% increase in active customers and an 18% rise in average order value from the same period a year ago. The net loss for the quarter was $42.6 million, an improvement from last year’s $73.5 million loss.

Beyond Inc. is No. 63 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 database of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond formerly ranked No. 47 before its bankruptcy and Overstock.com previously ranked No. 50. Digital Commerce 360 projects Beyond’s total web sales in 2024 will reach $1.58 billion.

Beyond Inc. web sales by year

Beyond updates on turnaround effort in Q2 earnings report

“We have made significant progress in the past 150 days and will continue to execute on our plan to achieve growth and profitability,” Marcus Lemonis, Beyond’s executive chairman, said in a statement.

After acquiring the intellectual property of bankrupt Bed Bath & Beyond for $21.5 million in June 2023, Overstock.com rebranded as Bed Bath & Beyond. It then shut down the Overstock ecommerce website. By November, the company had rebranded again as Beyond Inc.

In March, Beyond backtracked on its decision and relaunched Overstock.com. It also acquired the intellectual property of ecommerce retailer Zulily for $4.5 million, with the new Zulily website slated to go live on Sept. 10.

Beyond expects profitability in 2025

In Beyond’s Q2 earnings call, Lemonis outlined plans to turn Bed Bath & Beyond into a $1 billion-plus ecommerce brand, emphasizing the need for “thoughtful and creative ways” to expand and leverage the brand’s IP for cash flow.

David Nielsen, president and CEO, highlighted that during the quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond experienced growth in core categories such as bedding, bath, and decor, as well as higher-ticket items like patio and outdoor furniture.

On the Overstock front, the brand’s online relaunch, supported by a new AI-driven marketing campaign, delivered strong performance in traditional categories like area rugs and furniture, Nielsen said. Its ecommerce site has expanded its product lineup and improved the user experience. Additionally, Overstock is set to finalize a deal with a major closeout and reverse logistics company, which could draw in more customers.

Looking ahead, Beyond plans to test a new technology, Vercel. Vercel provides an ecommerce solution that integrates with Shopify to speed up and personalize customer interactions. Over the next 18 months, the company plans to create a global loyalty program that leverages its database and partnerships with non-competing companies, with options to use and transfer reward points.

“Think about it like a Bonvoy at Marriott or a Star Alliance in the airlines,” Lemonis said.

In the coming months, he noted that Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock typically see Q2 revenue outpace Q3 by about 12% to 14%, with Q3 serving as a transition to the busy Q4 season. The goal is to maintain or surpass this trend and improve gross margins every quarter, he said. Lemonis said he expects Beyond will achieve profitability sometime in 2025.

Other Q2 highlights reported by Beyond

• Active customers numbered 6.2 million, up 35% year over year.
• Orders delivered were 1.9 million, up 8% year over year.
• Gross profit was $80 million or 20.1% of revenue. That’s a 530-basis-point decline year over year but a 70-basis-point improvement from the prior quarter.
• Cash and equivalents totaled $186 million at quarter’s end.

The company is two-thirds of the way through a plan to cut fixed expenses by $45 million annually.

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CEO Rodney McMullen said in an earnings call with investors that Kroger expects customer sentiment “to continue improving” as inflation moderates. But for now, many are “managing economic uncertainty.”

“As we’ve seen over recent quarters, customers continue to seek value and are shopping with us differently based on their financial situations,” McMullen said. “Spending from premium and mainstream customers continue to be strong.”

He added that Kroger is starting to see positive signs among its “most budget-conscious households.”

Kroger has moved up to No. 6 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database ranking the largest online retailers in North America. Kroger is first in the Top 1000’s Food/Beverage category. However, it competes with Mass Merchants that rank higher than it in the Top 1000 — Walmart and Target — for online grocery sales.

Kroger digital sales

In Q1, Kroger said, it accelerated its digital presence by increasing delivery sales 17% year over year. It also increased digitally engaged households 9% year over year.

Kroger digital sales increased more than 8% in Q1, said Todd Foley, interim chief financial officer, in the earnings call. For total Kroger sales, which increased to $45.3 billion in Q1, gross margin was 22.4% of sales. Whereas total sales increased slightly from $45.2 billion in the previous year’s Q1, gross margin decreased slightly (down seven basis points), he said.

McMullen said delivery and pickup both grew in the quarter. Kroger’s delivery team has improved fill rates, he said. That refers to the number of orders Kroger can ship from its available stock. It also reduced wait times and improved on how many of its orders were delivered without error, he added.

“Through the power of machine learning and AI, we are developing new ways to elevate the pickup experience for customers and at the same time reduce costs,” McMullen said. “With dynamic batching of orders, these tools are providing associates the most effective pick routes, which is enabling us to dramatically reduce pick lead time in our highest volume stores.”

Additionally, he said customers love Kroger’s delivery experience for refrigerated products. The Kroger delivery network has nearly doubled sales year over year in Q1, he said.

Personalization and retail media at Kroger

Personalization has helped Kroger engage with more digital customers, McMullen said. As a result, Kroger customers clipped 18% more digital coupons than they did in the year-ago quarter.

“Capturing more digital households is a key to our long-term growth model as these households are more loyal, spend nearly three times as much with us and drive our alternative profit businesses,” McMullen said.

Meanwhile, McMullen said Kroger Precision Marketing, the company’s retail media network, is on pace to meet full-year expectations of more than 20% growth. Kroger Precision Marketing added new capabilities with Meta on June 19, he said. It continues to “broaden its reach by offering its custom audiences and ad measurement capabilities to advertisers on the Meta social media platforms.”

McMullen said this will create more opportunities for clients to reach relevant audiences in more places.

Possible Kroger merger with Albertsons

McMullen told investors that Kroger believes its updated divestiture plan meets regulators’ concerns and will put the company in a better position to complete its merger with Albertsons.

Kroger and Albertsons announced in April a plan to sell grocery stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers. This came in response to a statement the Federal Trade Commission had released in late February calling the proposed Kroger-Albertsons merger “anticompetitive” and suing to block the $24.6 billion acquisition.

McMullen said the proposed divestiture “positions C&S to be a strong and successful competitor.”

Albertsons ranks No. 24 in the Top 1000. C&S currently does not rank in the Top 1000.

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So far, the company has reached two milestones, including concluding a major investment round and naming its senior management team.

The company changed its name from SilverSun Technologies Inc. to QXO Inc. and raised $1 billion in funding.

QXO’s CEO

Jacobs — who says he has completed approximately 500 merger and acquisition deals in his career, and built five multibillion-dollar, publicly traded companies — is putting in $900 million through Jacobs Private Equity III Llc to capitalize QXO, while other investors, including Sequoia Heritage, are contributing the remainder of the capital.

As a result of his investment, Jacobs is now CEO of QXO.

QXO follows several other companies Jacobs has been involved in launching. Among them are:

• XPO Inc., one of the largest providers of truckload services in North America, where he is executive chairman
• GXO Logistics Inc., a global contract logistics provider using “data-driven processes, intelligent automation and machine learning” technology
• RXO Inc., a technology-enabled freight brokerage platform
• United Rentals Inc., a big equipment rental company
• United Waste Systems Inc., a large waste management company that was later sold

Jacobs says he expects QXO to achieve revenue of at least $1 billion in its first year of business and $5 billion within three years. To hit those numbers, the company says it will focus heavily on digital technology — and B2B ecommerce.

QXO’s management team hires

QXO also announced the other key appointments to its management team including:

• Josephine Berisha, chief human resources officer. Berisha has more than two decades of senior human resource experience with global companies. She previously served as chief human resources officer for XPO.
• Joe Checkler, senior vice president, communications. Checkler most recently served as vice president of communications for XPO, Inc., where he led the corporate and investor communications organization from 2018 to 2022.
• Matt Fassler, chief strategy officer. Fassler was chief strategy officer of XPO from 2018 through 2022 during the company’s strategic transformation in North America, and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of GXO Logistics, Inc., which was spun off from XPO.
• Austin Landow, executive vice president. Landow is managing director of Jacobs Private Equity with responsibility for leading strategic projects. He joined XPO from 2019 to 2023.
• Mark Manduca, chief investment officer. Manduca previously served as chief investment officer of GXO Logistics from 2021 to 2023, with responsibility for managing relationships within the investment community.
• Eduardo Pelleissone, chief transformation officer. Pelleissone most recently led operations in the Americas and Asia Pacific for GXO Logistics from 2021 to 2024, after serving as chief transformation officer for GXO’s parent company, XPO.
• Chris Signorello, chief legal officer. Signorello previously served in senior legal roles with XPO, most recently as deputy general counsel and chief compliance officer from 2021 to 2023.
• Sean Smith, chief accounting officer and deputy chief financial officer. Smith has more than two decades of senior financial experience across multiple industries. From 2019 to 2024, he served as corporate controller for Chewy Inc., a leading ecommerce retailer of pet supplies and medications.

“I have known these leaders for many years and have great confidence in their ability to grow QXO into a tech-forward leader in building products distribution,” Jacobs says.

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Now, GrubMarket’s latest acquisition of Butter for an undisclosed price will serve GrubMarket’s growing appetite for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The marketplace hopes AI solutions will be able to facilitate faster ecommerce and digital payment processing for small restaurants and neighborhood grocers.

San Francisco-based Butter is a four-year-old company with a software product suite of AI-powered sales tools, cloud-based enterprise resource planning and integrated online payment solutions for food distribution companies.

To date, Butter has raised more than $39 million in funding with a business base that includes more than 11,000 buyers. It also processes hundreds of thousands of orders annually, the company says.

Why GrubMarket acquired Butter

The acquisition will integrate Butter’s AI-powered ecommerce and payments applications with GrubMarket’s existing platform products, which include:

• WholesaleWare, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It provides food industry wholesalers and distributors with tools for fiscal management, sales support, online ordering, inventory management, lot traceability, grower accounting and automated routing and logistics.
• GrubAssist AI, an analytics and analysis tool for food supply chain businesses.
• GrubMarket’s mobile ecommerce tools.

“The Butter team is incredibly enthusiastic about helping food wholesale distributors better run their businesses by building software and AI that help them grow sales, streamline operations, and deliver excellent products and services, without drowning in manual tasks like repetitive phone calls and messy spreadsheet data entry,” says Butter cofounder Winston Chi. “We were keen to join forces with GrubMarket, who shares our passion for being an AI-powered technology enabler and digital transformer to drive meaningful change for the food supply chain industry.”

GrubMarket weighs in 

GrubMarket connects farmers with consumers for home delivery. It also sells food to grocery retailers and restaurants. Walmart, Costco and Whole Foods are among its customers. GrubMarket operates in all 50 U.S. states along with parts of Canada, South America, Asia, and Africa.

“We have known about Butter for a little while now and are impressed with their ability to leverage advanced AI to build unique software applications that are highly complementary to our WholesaleWare and GrubAssist AI products,” says GrubMarket CEO Mike Xu.

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Home Depot Q1 sales declined 2.3% year over year to $36.4 billion. That was on top of declines last year, when 2023 Q1 sales were down 4.2% year over year. 

Meanwhile, Q1 comparable sales declined 2.8%, and U.S. comparable sales decreased 3.2%. Home Depot’s net earnings for the quarter were $3.6 billion, a year-over-year drop from $3.9 billion.

“The team executed at a high level in the quarter, and we continued to grow market share,” CEO Ted Decker said in a written statement. “And while the quarter was impacted by a delayed start to spring and continued softness in certain larger discretionary projects, we feel great about our store readiness, our product assortment in stores and online, and our associate engagement.”

Home Depot is No. 4 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest online retailers in North America. Digital Commerce 360 categorizes Home Depot as a Hardware & Home Improvement retailer.

Home Depot Q1 online sales

While overall Home Depot Q1 sales declined, online sales grew over the same period. Digital sales grew 3.3% year over year, the retailer said. Nearly half of those sales were fulfilled through stores.

Making the online shopping experience at Home Depot more convenient was a top priority in Q1.

“We are incredibly focused on removing friction for our customers to create an excellent, interconnected shopping experience,” executive vice president of merchandising Billy Bastek told investors on May 14. “We continue to work on improving our online search functionality and serving the most relevant product offerings to our customers.”

Home Depot improved its search engine by combining keywords and other customer behavior to deliver more targeted results, he said. It also added improved filtering capabilities. These advances together drove “strong results in our online business,” he said.

Home Depot also made returning online orders easier, with more than 70% of orders now eligible for self-service returns at UPS stores.

Home Depot DIY and B2B sales

The home improvement retailer serves both do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and B2B customers, whom it refers to as Pros. DIY and Pro sales performed about the same in the quarter, both declining year over year, Bastek said.

Within the DIY sector, consumers pulled back on spending on large home projects during the quarter across income groups, Home Depot said. Some consumers are waiting on big projects because they anticipate moving into a new home when interest rates come down, the retailer added.

Big-ticket projects, defined as tickets over $1,000, declined 6.5% year over year. That was also true of projects customers typically use financing on, such as kitchen and bathroom remodels.

Relying more on smaller projects could make things more difficult for Home Depot going forward.

“The danger here is that while Home Depot has a commanding position, it faces much more competition on the light-side improvement space from smaller improvement players, garden centers, and specialists like Sherwin Williams in categories like paint,” said Neil Saunders, managing director at retail analysis firm Global Data. “From our data, consumers are now shopping around more to find the best bargains and deals.”

Home Depot saw stronger sales from larger Pro customers than smaller contractors in the quarter, it said.

The retailer recently invested in acquisitions to grow its B2B market. In March, it acquired SRS Distribution for $18.25 billion.  The acquisition was both “complementary and additive” to Home Depot’s current offerings, Decker said at the time. SRS will expand Home Depot’s total addressable market by $50 billion, to about $1 trillion, Home Depot said. Prior to that, it also purchased International Designs Group LLC in late 2023.

“Pockets of softness remain, and Home Depot can no longer rely on the pro market to pull it out of the hole on the consumer side,” Saunders said. “That said, we believe that Home Depot is holding on to pros far better than Lowe’s, mainly because it is seen as being stronger on prices, service, and the depth of range it offers.”

Home Depot earnings

For its fiscal first quarter ended April 28, 2024, Home Depot reported:

• Total sales declined 2.3% year over year to $36.4 billion.
• Home Depot online sales grew 3.3%.
• Comparable sales declined 2.8%. In the U.S., they decreased 3.2%.
• Net earnings were $3.6 billion.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s comparison of Home Depot and Lowe’s online sales.

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The retailer has had a tumultuous year, acquiring Bed Bath & Beyond and Zulily, relaunching Overstock, and making several high-level executive changes. Now, its brands all operate under one parent company, Beyond. In 2024, Beyond is focused on building up a portfolio of profitable brands, it said.

Beyond Inc. is No. 63 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 before its bankruptcy. Overstock.com previously ranked No. 50.

What happened to Overstock and Bed Bath & Beyond?

Overstock bought Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property for $21.5 million in June 2023 after the retailer filed for bankruptcy. In August, Overstock relaunched the Bed Bath & Beyond ecommerce website and later changed its name to operate under Beyond, Inc. In March, it also acquired Zulily.

Zulily was previously owned by Qurate Retail, which ranks No. 18 in the Top 1000.

“We are now 120 days into this new era for the company, building a foundation that will cause the next 10 years to look materially different from the last 10,” Beyond executive chairman of the board Marcus Lemonis said in a written statement.

“That foundation consists of three powerful brands: Bed Bath & Beyond, Overstock, and now Zulily, and we believe each of them has the potential to become a billion-dollar-plus revenue brand in its own right,” Lemonis explained. “That foundation requires us to have the right team, the proper brand positioning, and the most efficient process to profitably grow.”

Beyond Q1 results

In fiscal Q1, Beyond reported revenue grew 0.3% to $382 million. For comparison, net sales declined 28.9% year over year in Q1 2023.

Active customer count increased 26% year over year to 6.0 million, and the retailer delivered 2.2 million orders, an increase of 27%. 

Meanwhile, Beyond recorded a net loss of $74 million in the quarter. That compares to a $10.3 million loss in the same period of 2023.

“We’re pleased with the growth in active customers and transactions during the quarter,” said Adrianne Lee, chief financial and administrative officer. “However, in analyzing the profitability of that growth, we are making the strategic decision to focus on investments to launch these brands and acquire customers with a higher probability of repeat behavior.”

The retailer will also continue the cost-cutting measures introduced in Q4, with the goal of reducing $45 million in expenses annually.

Beyond’s Overstock relaunch in Q1

The retailer relaunched Overstock.com in March, six months ahead of the original schedule. At the time, Lemonis called the discount furniture retailer a “silver bullet” for the company.

Beyond said it had to start from scratch to create Overstock, because the platform it previously ran on was given to Bed Bath & Beyond in the fall.

The relaunch came only at the very end of Q1, but early results are “encouraging,” Lemonis said. He added that Overstock is in discussion with “one of the largest liquidators in America.” He also sees an opportunity for Overstock in reverse logistics as it works with its vendors to facilitate domestic returns.

“We believe that if we can be part of improving their supply chain for the vendors on the back end, which is where the game is often won or lost, we’ll have found another way to monetize the Overstock brand again in an asset-light way,” Lemonis told investors.

Overstock also changed leadership during Q1. Dave Nielsen, who became CEO of Overstock in February, previously served as interim CEO of Beyond during the retailer’s search to fill the role. Nielsen held several other roles at Overstock, including president and chief sourcing and operations officer.

Previous CEO of Overstock Jonathan Johnson stepped down in November as the retailer rebranded under the new name.

Other personnel changes

Beyond announced more new members of its leadership team in the earnings call.

They are:

• Guncha Mehta, chief digital and information officer
• Stacey Shively, chief merchandising officer, Bed Bath & Beyond
• Angela Minor, chief marketing officer, Bed Bath & Beyond
• Deb Bollom, chief merchandising officer, Overstock
• Steph Whitacre, senior vice president and general manager, Zulily
• Jennifer Evans, senior vice president of marketing, Beyond, Inc.
• Alexis Callahan, vice president of investor relations and public relations
• Chris Peake, director of merchandising, Zulily

Beyond earnings

For its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, Beyond, Inc. reported:

• Revenue increased 0.3% to 382 million.
• Orders delivered grew 27% to 2.2 million.
• Net loss was $74 million, up from a loss of $10.2 million in the year-ago period.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports.

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In January, eBay laid off 1,000 workers, which was about 9% of its total workforce.

“We reached a major milestone in Q1 as pre-owned and refurbished goods reached 40% of total GMV on our marketplace after consistently outpacing the sales of brand new goods since the pandemic,” said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone.

EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV. 

eBay sales grow in Q1

Year over year, eBay revenue grew 2% to $2.56 billion in Q1. That also equals its Q4 2023 revenue, the highest quarter that year and since Q4 2021. However, it’s still about half a billion less than its peak of $3.02 billion in Q1 2021.

EBay GMV was nearly flat, growing 1% year over year to $18.6 billion. Iannone said in a May 1 earnings call with investors that eBay remains “on track for GMV growth to turn positive by Q3 or Q4 of this year.”

Motor parts and accessories were “once again” the largest contributor to eBay sales growth in Q1, Iannone said.

“Fitment is a central component of trust within the P&A category, helping customers understand exactly which of our more than 600 million live listings in this category fit their vehicle,” Iannone said. “We continue to work closely with large P&A [parts and accessories] sellers to augment their inventory using the myFitment toolkit. To date, we have enhanced eligible auto parts with approximately 5 billion pieces of incremental fitment data and we’ve continued to see a double-digit increase in conversion on these augmented listings.”

On April 30, eBay announced a multi-year partnership with the McLaren Racing Formula One team. That deal will see eBay branding featured on the cars of two drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, during the 2024 season.

Collectibles also remained a major contributor to eBay sales in Q1, Iannone said. EBay has rolled out new features for collectibles, including:

• My collections
• Price guides
• Authentication and grading partnerships
• Revamped condition standards
• Live commerce
• Vault storage
• New shipping methods to reduce costs

EBay has launched a simplified listing flow for sports trading cards to all U.S. sellers, Iannone said. It uses proprietary technology to prefill the listing with relevant item aspects, provide simpler shipping options and offer “smarter” pricing recommendations based on the card’s value and condition, Iannone added. The rollout has led to a double-digit percentage reduction in listing time and “measurable increases in completed listings and sold items per customer,” he said without revealing more.

eBay Live shopping in beta

Iannone said eBay Live spans multiple categories, including collectibles such as comics and sports memorabilia. It enabled viewing on desktop, on which Iannone said eBay improved homepage discoverability with personalized recommendations.

EBay also introduced AI-powered tools to enhance discovery, he added. One such feature is called Explore, and it enables users to browse “a list of personalized recommendations based on implicit and explicit interest signals, such as the user’s style preferences and sizes,” Iannone said. “The Explore feed updates in real-time in response to products that users interact with, while buyers can refine their shopping journey using our visually similar search feature powered by computer vision.”

Explore is also in beta and is currently available to all U.K. eBay users. Iannone said Explore has focused on fashion so far and that eBay plans to expand the feature’s capabilities later in the year.

eBay doubles down on collectibles segment with acquisition

In April — after Q1 ended — eBay acquired sports auction house Goldin Auctions from Collectors.

“Combining Goldin with eBay enhances our respective marketplace offerings by expanding the range of inventory available to eBay customers and opening up an expansive global audience for Goldin sellers,” Iannone said. “We believe this will enable a more well-rounded collecting experience across price points and service models, complementing our acquisition of TCGPlayer and recent partnership with sports trading card company, COMC.”

The online marketplace also agreed to divest the eBay Vault to PSA. Collectors is the parent company of PSA, which offers third-party authentication and grading services in the collectibles industry.

Also in April, eBay rolled out an early version of Shop the Look, which uses generative AI to create shoppable content and fashion recommendations. It is currently live on iOS in the United States and U.K.

Ad business

In Q1, eBay first-party advertising grew 28%. Meanwhile, total ad revenue represented 2.1% of GMV.

“During the quarter, over 3 million sellers adopted a single ad product and we ended the quarter with over $950 million live promoted listings,” Iannone said. “Our standard cost per acquisition units remain the largest contributor to year-over-year ad revenue growth in Q1, followed by our cost per click (CPC) advanced product.”

eBay earnings

For its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, eBay Inc. reported:

• Gross merchandise value (GMV) grew about 1% to reach $18.6 billion.
• eBay revenue grew more than 2% to $2.56 billion.
• Total advertising revenue grew 20% to $384 million and represented 2.1% penetration of GMV.

Check back for more earnings reports. Here’s last quarter’s eBay report.

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Joining the Macy’s board of directors are Ric Clark and Rick Markee, both of whom were nominated by Arkhouse.

“We are pleased to welcome Ric and Rick to the Board as we advance our efforts to deliver value for shareholders,” said Tony Spring, chairman and CEO of Macy’s, Inc. “Ric and Rick bring leadership experience as well as valuable real estate and retail industry expertise, respectively, that is complementary to that of our other Board members.”

Macy’s ranks No. 17 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database. The Top 1000 ranks North America’s leading retailers by online sales. It is also the second-largest Apparel & Accessories retailer in the database.

Macy’s welcomes board nominees from Arkhouse

The appointments, announced by Macy’s on April 10, became effective immediately. As a result, Arkhouse withdrew the rest of the nominees on its slate. Arkhouse in turn released its own statement. The group praised the decision, noting that it would continue its pursuit of a deal to acquire Macy’s.

“Ric Clark and Rick Markee bring tremendous dealmaking experience to Macy’s Board and will be instrumental in maximizing value for shareholders,” Arkhouse’s statement read. “As a result of our efforts, our buyer group has begun receiving due diligence to progress discussions toward a potential transaction to acquire the Company.”

The group made it clear that it hopes Clark and Markee will help to secure a deal. Arkhouse and Brigade Capital Management previously offered to acquire Macy’s at $24 per share, or $6.6 billion. The deal, proposed in March would have taken the retailer private. That offer followed another for $5.8 million, which Macy’s rejected.

Arkhouse will continue to pursue Macy’s buyout

“The appointment of Clark and Markee to the Board and the Finance Committee, which is tasked with reviewing our proposal and any alternative transactions, will ensure that our discussions continue to be constructive and that our proposal is treated seriously and expeditiously,” Arkhouse said in its released statement. “We appreciate the Board’s engagement and look forward to working with them to unlock shareholder value.”

The April 10 changes to the Macy’s board included two other members, which were previously planned. Those included CEO Tony Spring taking over the chairman role and Douglas Sesler being added as an independent director. In addition, former Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette and Frank Blake retired from the board.

“We are confident the Company will benefit from their additional perspectives in addition to those of Doug who also joins our Board today,” said Spring. “I look forward to working with all my fellow directors as I step into the role of chairman. At the same time, I want to extend the Board’s appreciation for Jeff’s and Frank’s many valuable contributions throughout their years of service.”

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Buybuy Baby currently operates 11 physical stores, all in the northeast region in the United States. Raina Khumush, director of marketing and digital at Buybuy Baby, told Digital Commerce 360 that the retailer is pleased with its performance thus far. She said it has proven that customer loyalty to the brand “is huge.”

“The customer response has been really strong to both the digital side of the business and the store side of the business,” Khumush said. “We’re essentially doubling every month.” She did not attach a dollar amount to the growth.

Khumush added that Buybuy Baby’s current team includes members who worked with the brand before the relaunch, others who had experience in the baby industry, and brand-new team members.

“The brand itself has tons of heritage and goodwill, and it has this great legacy,” Khumush said. “We’ve really brought that forward into the new business, but we are also rebuilding, re-envisioning, reimagining this business, and we’re building a new business model as well.”

The Buybuy Baby relaunch began just before the Cyber 5 sales period in November 2023, reviving the brand’s retail presence.

What happened to Buybuy Baby?

Buybuy Baby was part of Bed Bath & Beyond, which went bankrupt in April 2023. Overstock then acquired Bed Bath & Beyond’s intellectual property for $21.5 million in June 2023. Court documents show that in July, a buyer named Mark Srour-Serure, the owner of Dream on Me Industries, acquired Buybuy Baby’s trademark and digital assets for $15.5 million. New Jersey-based Dream on Me was one of Buybuy Baby’s former vendors.

The acquisition gave Dream on Me the rights to Buybuy Baby’s intellectual property, which encompassed:

• Its digital properties, including first-party data that Buybuy Baby collected. This consists of customer names, addresses, phone and fax numbers, email addresses and other identifiers. It also includes web browser cookies and other browser- or device-specific identifiers, according to the court documents.
• Mobile platform. This includes Buybuy Baby’s applications on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
• Advertising and marketing materials, samples, artwork, photography, images, videos and more.
• Business data and business internet properties.

In August, Overstock relaunched the Bed Bath & Beyond ecommerce website and later changed its name to operate under Beyond, Inc. Since then, Overstock relaunched its own website, distinguishing itself from Bed Bath & Beyond’s ecommerce site. On the other end, Buybuy Baby relaunched its website Nov. 18.

“When the brand was acquired, what was acquired was essentially just the IP,” Khumush said. “There was really no other assets that were acquired along with that. The website had to be completely rebuilt, starting from scratch. In that sense, there wasn’t necessarily an option not to do so.”

Beyond Inc. is No. 63 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Bed Bath & Beyond ranked No. 47 prior to its bankruptcy.

Buybuy Baby born again

The Buybuy Baby relaunch came in the middle of the holiday season, less than a week before the Cyber 5 period — the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

“Our focus was really about getting retail ready, getting to know our customers again, either inviting existing customers back or getting to know new customers that were coming into the brand, and trying out some different marketing tactics,” Khumush said.

Buybuy Baby is still establishing new baselines for its digital marketing metrics, Khumush said.

“We do have some of the previous data, so we are using that to some extent to understand what’s happened in the past, but we definitely are taking a fresh approach, trying to look at everything with new, fresh perspective, and we’re also in a phase right now where I would say we’re testing a lot of different things,” Khumush said. “Our goal is to continue to do that: test, monitor, and then optimize all the different types of marketing channels that are available to us, and so we can ultimately get to the goal of having this optimal marketing mix. Right now, we’re still very much in this test-and-learn phase.”

Khumush said Buybuy Baby’s current team acquired the brand’s previous email lists, but email is a tricky part of the brand’s new-customer-acquisition approach.

“Our business is interesting because it is a business that requires a significant amount of new-customer acquisition,” Khumush said. “Obviously, people are in the prenatal and postnatal stage of life for only a finite amount of time.”

Even with an existing email list, she said, Buybuy Baby is still trying different approaches to see what resonates with its audience, including segmenting based on shopping behavior.

Buybuy Baby relaunch is a social experience

Khumush said Buybuy Baby is “heavily” using social media — Instagram and Facebook in particular. The brand also wants to grow on TikTok and Pinterest.

The retailer has committed to doing one large in-store event per month for the foreseeable future, she said, and it will livestream those events, mostly via Instagram.

“What we think that will allow us to do is reach a broader audience,” Khumush said. “Obviously, because our stores are so concentrated right now in the northeast, we don’t want to forget the fact that we have all of these fans and customers nationwide who do want to still engage and participate in these events, but they can’t be there physically. We’re trying to test ways to see how we can create a digital experience for them, where they can feel like they’re still a part of it, but they don’t necessarily have to be physically there in the store.”

She added that Buybuy Baby has seen “really good return” on its Instagram advertising. She also said the retailer has leaned into Instagram more than any other social media platform over the last few months. And influencer marketing has been a large part of that.

Buybuy Baby influencers and new initiatives

Influencer partners have livestreamed the retailer’s in-store events as well.

“We also had an influencer do a run-through of our website,” Khumush said. “How to go onto our website, what to expect when you come to our website, how to shop our website. We’re seeing that content is resonating really well with the audiences. Those are the kinds of things we also want to continue to do. Tap into that influencer base to continue to promote store events, new product launches, new services that we may be launching now or in the future.

In addition to using influencer marketing and hosting in-store events, Buybuy Baby has launched a consultation service that customers can sign up for through the retailer’s website. Buybuy Baby is offering free, 60-minute consultations to expecting and new parents.

“They can make an appointment to come into one of our 11 stores and work with an expert to guide them through either creating a registry, how to choose the best stroller or car seat for your baby, how to design the perfect nursery from the crib to the glider to the bedding to any of the decor,” Khumush said. “They can give advice on breastfeeding or bottle feeding and really any other topic that a new or expecting parent might be interested in learning more about.”

The consultations are currently only available at the retailer’s physical stores, but Khumush said the retailer is looking to make virtual consultations available in the future.

“We definitely have other services and things up our sleeves that we want to launch this year,” Khumush said.

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Under the terms of the deal, which was approved by both companies’ boards, Resident co-founders and co-CEOs, Eric Hutchinson and Ran Reske, are expected to stay in their current roles.

Ashley Home’s affiliate company, Ashley Furniture, ranks No. 140 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America. Resident is No. 123. Both appear in the Housewares & Home Furnishings category.

The acquisition’s importance for Resident

“Ran and I are thrilled that Resident will now be part of the Ashley family,” Hutchinson said in the acquisition announcement. “This partnership marks a significant milestone for our team and our journey. We believe that together, we can achieve even greater heights and deliver unparalleled value to our customers. Joining forces with Ashley enables new opportunities for growth and our team is excited about the possibilities ahead.”

Resident sells its mattresses online, as well as through 2,500 retailers in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., according to the company.

What Ashley acquiring Resident means for international availability

Ashley will expand the Resident brand’s reach across a global footprint. The acquiring company’s presence extends online and through physical stores at 1,125 locations in 67 countries, Ashley’s announcement states.

“We are incredibly excited about the possibilities that Resident brings to Ashley,” said Ashley Home CEO Todd Wanek. “In only a few years, Resident has established itself as a premier destination for mattresses, and we believe this merger will strengthen both companies and accelerate our growth trajectories, together bringing more products to more homes.”

The two companies expected the deal to close by March 6.

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