After relaunching Bed Bath & Beyond online and setting the table for the return of Overstock.com as an off-price/closeout operation, Beyond is adding to its e-retail portfolio again by bringing the Zulily brand on board.
As it did with Bed Bath & Beyond, the company has acquired the intellectual property and other brand assets of Zulily, a flash sale pioneer in the e-commerce sector. Beyond characterized the Zulily acquisition as a strategic move designed to further strengthen the company’s position in the off-price market while complementing its portfolio of brands. Bed Bath & Beyond business is already in full swing and Overstock is scheduled to relaunch later this month, Beyond noted.
The deal covers certain intellectual property assets related to the Zulily brand. Those include the Zulily website and domain names, trademarks, tradenames, customer database, social media accounts and software to run the website, Beyond pointed out, as well as the goodwill associated with the brand. The transaction excludes all of Zulily’s liabilities, liens and debts. Beyond purchased the assets for $4.5 million plus acquisition-related costs, funded with cash on hand, the company indicated.
Beyond expects the new Zulily site to launch as a fully functional e-commerce operation by the end of second quarter and contribute to Beyond’s 24-month revenue goal without adding any additional incremental fixed expense.
“This (Zulily) acquisition doubles down on our belief in the off-price market and its importance to building our business, improving our margin profile and growing our customer file,” said Marcus Lemonis, Beyond executive chairman. “Zulily, in combination with our legacy brand, Overstock, will provide our vendors multiple outlets that not only meet customers at various price points but also offer an additional outlet to improve their inventory turns and financial performance.
Lemonis added, “This acquisition marks a strategic step forward in the transformation and long-term growth of Beyond. We’re excited about the global vendor pool this acquisition opens the door to, driving incremental revenue by re-engaging Zulily’s 18 million customers as well as the existing Beyond customer database with significant synergies across product categories.”
Dave Nielsen, Overstock CEO, added, “Bringing the trusted Zulily brand into our asset-light business model allows us to offer furniture and home furnishings, apparel and footwear, jewelry and watches, among other categories that are also core competencies of our off-price Overstock business with flash sale deal pricing. The ramp with Zulily is simple, as the website and mobile app are already built and available in the Shopify environment. We will be able to integrate it seamlessly into our back-end systems for order fulfillment, logistics and operations to be handled by our existing teams.”
Lemonis and recently named Bed Bath & Beyond CEO Chandra Holt are scheduled to outline Beyond’s growth strategy in a keynote address during the forthcoming Inspired Home Show at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The presentation is set for Tuesday, March 19, at 10 a.m. in McCormick Place S102.
