Beyond Inc. Sets Zulily Relaunch For September

Zulily’s much anticipated relaunch under new ownership is slated for the third quarter.

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Acquired by Beyond Inc. for $4.5 million this past March, the Zulily platform and site were expected to be fully operational by the end of the second quarter, or by June 30. It was initially thought that Beyond wouldn’t need to do much work to ramp up Zulily operations as its website and mobile app were already available on the Shopify platform. But retail veteran Marcus Lemonis, best known for reviving struggling businesses on CNBC’s “The Profit,” might have had other ideas once the company did a deeper dive on how best to position Zulily both within the company’s portfolio and in the marketplace. Lemonis became executive chairman of Beyond in February.

“We are targeting to launch Zulily on Sept. 10,” Lemonis said during Beyond’s second-quarter earnings conference call on Tuesday. He noted that the company has completed the “architecture” for the flash-sale site and has “signed and are trading over 100 legacy vendors, with another 100 suppliers in the onboarding pipeline.” Lemonis said the site is currently in the internal testing stage. “This effort has been led by a combination of our own and existing staff as well as an unbelievable team of added key legacy Zulily leaders.”

David Nielsen, Beyond’s president and CEO, said the team of experienced merchants who were with Zulily know the customer and have established working relationships with important brand partners. He added that their “efforts are bearing fruit, and that in addition to “offering flash sales, we’ll also be offering an evergreen assortment of must-have basics on the site, which will require a member login and be additive to the P&L.”

Beyond was formerly known as online home retailer Overstock.com, but rebranded itself to move away from its closeout image after it acquired the Bed Bath & Beyond IP assets out of bankruptcy for $21.5 million. The Overstock site was rebranded using the Bed Bath & Beyond banner. Beyond in March implemented a soft relaunch of the legacy Overstock.com site , whose historic roots include a liquidation focus of goods across multiple categories including apparel and footwear before shifting to just home goods following the COVID pandemic. The new site, which launched Jul 18, brings back fashion and footwear to the mix as well as a variety of vendor-supplied special buys and closeouts.

“It is our vision, particularly with many off-price retailers leaving the e-commerce space, to become the North American leader where companies big and small can utilize the platform to reduce inventory in their own businesses and improve their turns and margins. They are essentially our vendors and suppliers,” Lemonis told investors during the call regarding plans for Overstock.com.

“In addition to our traditional vendors, we are in the early innings of entering the true liquidation reverse logistics and closeout business. We have formed material relationships with liquidators, jobbers, wholesalers and reverse logistics companies and are finalizing a formal agreement with a large-scale closeout and reverse logistics company,” Lemonis added.

As for the Bed Bath & Beyond brand, Nielsen said the company saw growth in core legacy categories that include bedding, bath, and decor, as well as emerging strength in patio and outdoor furniture. He also noted that the merchandising team is “working hard to bring back a number of important name brands that left years ago, which we think will move the needle in reviving Bed Bath & Beyond.”

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For the second quarter, Beyond narrowed its net loss to $42.6 million, or 93 cents a diluted share, from a net loss of $73.5 million, or $1.63, in the year-ago period. Net revenue fell 5.7 percent to $398.1 million from $422.2 million a year ago.

For the six months, the net loss widened to $116.5 million, or $2.55 a diluted share, from a net loss of $83.8 million, or $1.86, in the year-ago period. Net revenue fell 2.9 percent to $780.4 million from $803.4 million.

The company didn’t provide specific guidance for the third quarter and full year, although Lemonis said during the call that “it is our expectation that at some point in 2025, we are able to achieve profitability.”

Zulily began as a children’s apparel flash-sale site in 2009, and became a Wall Street tech darling in 2013 following its initial public offering that valued the company at $2.6 billion. Sales began to slow in 2014 and the company was acquired by Liberty Interactive’s QVC division in August 2015 for $2.4 billion. Following a 2019 restructuring and several rounds of layoffs, Zulily was sold by Qurate Retail, the former Liberty Interactive before its rebrand, to private equity firm Regent LP in May 2023 for an undisclosed amount. The operation was shut down last December.

Jefferies equity analyst Jonathan Matuszewski said that re-establishing profitability could be “12+ months away from that milestone.” He has a “hold” rating on shares of Beyond Inc. “Isolating pockets of the industry where Wayfair, Walmart, and TJX are not taking share—outside of liquidation—is a challenge,” the analyst also noted.

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