Bed Bath & Beyond Adds App, Registry, Rewards to Turnaround Efforts

A new app, a baby registry and a rewards program are among the latest services announced or introduced by Bed Bath & Beyond in its efforts to turn around its declining sales.

During the quarter ended Aug. 27, Bed Bath & Beyond’s comparable sales dropped 26% year over year, according to its Thursday (Sept. 29) earnings release.

That was in line with the company’s announced expectations and reflects “legacy factors” like the company’s prior merchandise assortment, out-of-stock situations and customer traffic trends, Bed Bath & Beyond Director and Interim CEO Sue Gove said Thursday during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

While the results are “not acceptable nor demonstrative of our potential,” they do reflect progress in some areas, Gove said.

For example, during the second quarter, Bed Bath & Beyond made a double-digit improvement in the gap between sales and inventory by using markdowns and promotions.

The company is also bringing back popular national brands, introducing emerging direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands and exiting one-third of its legacy owned brands, Gove said.

Bed Bath & Beyond launched its Welcome Rewards loyalty program during the summer and has gained 6.4 million members. The company has found that these members make more frequent, higher value purchases, the release stated.

It plans to relaunch its Baby registry business at buybuy Baby later this year.

The company is also investing in both digital capabilities and customer-facing services that make it easier to shop at its three retail banners — Bed Bath & Beyond, buybuy Baby and Harmon — Gove said.

“We will be upgrading to a new universal mobile app that connects our three banners together,” Gove said during the call. “Enabling even easier cross-banner shopping dovetails well with the traction we are seeing with Welcome Rewards.”

Looking ahead, the company said it expects comparable sales to decline 20% in the second half of the year, which is better than the steeper drop it saw in the first half, because of the changes it’s making.

“We’re executing the strategic and financial actions that will unlock progress in the back half of this year,” Gove said during the call, “while also investing in our future, such as the new stores we’re opening for our buybuy Baby business.”

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