Beyond Inc. acquired the intellectual property of ecommerce retailer Zulily months after the website shuttered. The deal, announced on March 7, comes at a key moment ahead of Beyond’s Overstock relaunch, setting up Zulily for its own refresh. 

Zulily shut down operations in December 2023 following layoffs and “financial instability,” it said. In February 2024, advisory firm Hilco Streambank said it was looking for potential buyers to purchase Zulily’s intellectual property. This deal comes ahead of the March 13 deadline for offers.

Beyond, the parent company of Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock, spent $4.5 million for Zulily’s website and domain names, trademarks, customer database, social media accounts, and software, it said. Beyond funded the deal with cash on hand, and it excludes Zulily’s liabilities and debts.

“This 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, executive chairman of Beyond, Inc., in a statement. “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.”

Beyond Inc. is No. 49 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 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.

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

Beyond website launches in 2024

Beyond plans to relaunch the Zulily website before the end of Q2 in 2024, it said. 

“This acquisition marks a strategic step forward in the transformation and long-term growth of Beyond,” Lemonis said. “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.”

The retailer also plans to relaunch Overstock.com by the end of March. That’s an accelerated timeline from the original plan of September 2024, and it will be a “silver bullet,” Lemonis said in a February earnings call with investors about the retailer’s Q4. Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock will have different purposes, he said. Overstock customers make bigger, less-frequent purchases and tend to have high incomes, he said. Average order value at Overstock is more than $50 higher than at Bed Bath & Beyond, where customers make more regular, less-expensive purchases.

“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,” said Dave Nielsen, CEO of Overstock. “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.”

Other changes at Beyond

Like Zulily, Beyond has had a tumultuous year. Following the rebrand as Beyond Inc., the retailer experienced a turnover in leadership. 

In November 2023, CEO Jonathan Johnson stepped down and the retailer announced it was searching for his replacement. Then, in February, Chandra Holt joined Beyond as the new CEO of Bed Bath & Beyond. Dave Nielsen was also appointed Overstock CEO after serving as interim CEO of Beyond. 

Marcus Lemonis joined the board of directors in October 2023 and became chairman of the board in December. In a Nov. 2 letter, John Thaler, founder of investment firm JAT Capital, called for Lemonis to be put in charge as the “most qualified and experienced individual on the board or involved with this company in any capacity.” He also called for Johnson’s removal as CEO.

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