Dive Brief:
- Beyond Inc. has entered an asset purchase agreement to acquire the global rights to the BuyBuy Baby brand for $5 million, the company said Monday. The move reunites the brand with its former corporate parent, Bed Bath & Beyond.
- Through a previously announced strategic partnership with Kirkland’s, which operates and licenses Bed Bath & Beyond stores, the move stands to bring BuyBuy Baby-branded merchandise back to physical retail a few months after a failed attempt to resurrect the brand. Under Beyond, the baby brand could be sold at Bed Bath & Beyond stores or once again open stand-alone BuyBuy Baby stores.
- As part of the deal, starting in 2026, Beyond will pay a 1% revenue share on e-commerce sales and 0.5% on brick-and-mortar store sales generated by itself, its affiliates, licensees and franchisees at BuyBuy Baby-branded stores and e-commerce platforms. The revenue share also applies to BuyBuy Baby-branded merchandise sold in other stores and e-commerce platforms.
Dive Insight:
For the second time in less than two years, a new owner has adopted the BuyBuy Baby brand.
Beyond’s acquisition of BuyBuy Baby “gives them access to a specialist brand in the baby space, which they can integrate into other businesses and partnerships,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, told Retail Dive in an email. “The purchase price is modest, so they will be hoping to generate a return. That said, BuyBuy Baby has fallen off the radar of a lot of consumers, so Beyond is going to have to work hard to monetize it and grow revenue.”
Under Executive Chairman Marcus Lemonis, Beyond is attempting to grow the baby apparel and accessories brand with a three-part strategy. The first prong relies on Beyond’s October partnership with Kirkland’s, which allowed for the opening and operation of up to five small-format Bed Bath & Beyond stores.
“Alongside our omnichannel partner, Kirkland’s, we collectively believe the Buy Buy Baby brand has a strong future both online and in brick-and-mortar,” Lemonis said in a statement. “Kirkland’s will have full flexibility, from integrating BuyBuy Baby into Bed Bath & Beyond stores, to opening stand-alone locations under each legacy banner.”
Beyond is also exploring two offerings with fintech company tZero, which holds a special purpose broker dealer license, including the tokenization of some of BuyBuy Baby’s intellectual property. Beyond wants to offer digital dividends to current holders of Beyond and make an offering to new investors who want a share of the BuyBuy Baby IP.
Lemonis said the goal is for the token to provide a revenue share on the brand’s omnichannel revenue, along with loyalty benefits across Beyond’s platform. Additionally, tZero’s blockchain technology could enable BuyBuy Baby to create a digital wallet that holds both financial assets and personal records like birth certificates, medical records and life milestones.
Founded in 1996, BuyBuy Baby was snatched up by the former Bed Bath & Beyond in 2007 for $67 million and $19 million in debt repayment. The brand’s recent change of hands began in April 2023, with the closure of about 120 stores under Bed Bath & Beyond’s Chapter 11 filing.
Dream on Me, a former BuyBuy Baby vendor, bought the brand’s intellectual property and 11 store leases for a total of $16.7 million in July 2023. In November 2023, Dream on Me reopened those stores. But less than a year later, it closed them all and announced a shift to operating BuyBuy Baby as a digital-only brand.
Online retailer Overstock bought Bed Bath & Beyond’s assets in mid-2023. The company later rebranded itself to Beyond. Its corporate portfolio also includes Zulily, which Beyond acquired nearly a year ago for $4.5 million.