BUYBUY Baby is looking to reinvest in its brick-and-mortar footprint.
The parent company, which also owns Bed Bath & Beyond, aims to reignite growth.
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Just months after shuttering all BuyBuy Baby locations, parent company Beyond Inc. is preparing to bring the brand back to physical retail.
The initiative is starting with a single test store, likely in Nashville, Tennessee.
“As we also look at that store footprint, we’re looking at ways to bring BuyBuy Baby back to life,” Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer Marcus Lemonis told analysts during the company’s Q1 earnings call.
“So we have authorized one store, just one, to be opened and tested.”
The announcement comes as Beyond reported a 39.7% year-over-year decline in net sales, which fell to $231.7 million following a broad culling of underperforming SKUs.
Active customer count also dropped 21%, though the average order value climbed more than 12%.
Despite the sales slump, the company emphasized signs of financial improvement.
Gross margin rose 560 basis points to 25.1%, and net loss narrowed 46% to $40 million.
Beyond said it believes it is “less than 60 days from transitioning out of restructuring and into revenue growth.”
Tuesday’s earnings also marked the latest chapter in the company’s effort to revive BuyBuy Baby.
Beyond, formerly Overstock.com, acquired the brand in February for $5 million, reuniting it with Bed Bath & Beyond, which it purchased in 2023.
The brands had split in 2022 during Bed Bath & Beyond’s bankruptcy, when one of BuyBuy Baby’s vendors bought the baby goods chain for $15.5 million.
Lemonis called BuyBuy Baby “an asset that I felt needed to be part of this company at all costs.”
He had previously described the goal as returning the brand “to its original growth partner – Bed Bath & Beyond.”
Beyond is also planning to open at least four Overstock-branded stores, a move that follows its recent $25 million investment in home retailer Kirkland’s.
That deal gave Beyond a 40% stake and a strategic partnership that includes operating Bed Bath & Beyond locations and shop-in-shops within Kirkland’s stores.
The company is also introducing a new concept: Bed Bath & Beyond Home, which Lemonis described as a low-capital extension of the brand.
He likened it to TJX’s HomeGoods, offering merchandise already sold online by Bed Bath & Beyond – such as small furniture, textiles, and home decor – in a more curated, off-price format.
“We believe that the assortment coming from Bed Bath & Beyond, and potentially Overstock, into those Bed Bath Home stores, and in the future some of those Kirkland stores, starts to level the playing field and makes the Kirkland stores and the Bed Bath Home stores real players in the off-price, highly curated, well-merchandised, non-dumpster looking environment that we believe customers are looking for,” Lemonis said.
The moves continue a pattern of rapid turnarounds for Beyond.
After rebranding from Overstock and shuttering its namesake website last year, the company later referred to the closure as “a fatal mistake.”
Earlier this year, it also sold a majority stake in Zulily — which it had acquired for $4.5 million in 2023 — for $5 million.