s Bed Bath & Beyond and declared that it would be redirecting its customers to BedBathandBeyond.com moving forward. At the time, then-CEO of Overstock, Jonathan Johnson, declared, “This is a historic day for Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock – and for the broader e-commerce industry. Through this rebranding, we’re breathing new life into Bed Bath & Beyond, positioning it as an asset-light, e-commerce retailer with an expanded home furnishings and furniture assortment. Think of it as Bed Bath & – a much bigger, better – Beyond.” With the news, it seemed that the turmoil of the last few years was over for Bed Bath & Beyond.  However, on November 6, the same day that Overstock officially changed its name to Beyond Inc, it was announced that Johnson was leaving the company effective immediately.  In a statement, Beyond Inc’s board chair Allison Abraham said, “Following the recent acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand and our corporate renaming as Beyond, Inc., the Board, and Jonathan determined that this is the ideal time for a transition in leadership to guide the company forward.” Johnson said he was proud of what the business had achieved under his leadership, “evolving to a leading online home retailer with an iconic name and a large, growing consumer base.”  “As the company turns the page to become Beyond, now is the right time for me to also turn the page to the next chapter in my career,” he said. “It has been an honour to work with such an exceptional team. I am confident the company is well-positioned to achieve broader popular reach as a bigger and better Beyond.” Following Johnson’s departure from the company, David Nielsen, Beyond’s current president, has stepped in as interim CEO and chief financial officer Adrianne Lee will be assuming expanded responsibilities.  Now the question remains, what will Bed Bath & Beyond look like moving forward? What was behind Johnson’s departure? To some, Johnson appeared to be making solid progress in revitalising the brand’s once-reputable status. The now-former CEO announced the inclusion of 600,000 new stock-keeping units and an updated version of the Bed Bath & Beyond mobile app with new discount offers to entice both Bed Bath & Beyond and Overstock’s loyalty members to return to the fold. However, according to JAT Capital Management, an activist hedge fund with a 9.6 per cent stake in the company, Johnson’s results were proving less than desired. Third-quarter profits revealed that net revenue declined 19 per cent compared to the year prior, resulting in a net loss of about $63 million. Overstock’s customer base also shrank in Q3. The company’s percentage of active customers dropped 15 per cent contrasting with last year’s numbers, despite the 20 million new shoppers that came along with the acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond. In early November, the hedge fund called for Johnson’s immediate removal in a letter to the board, stating that “the current CEO needs to be removed immediately. He has performed poorly (as demonstrated by the company’s financials relative to its peer group), he has communicated poorly with investors and the sellside community, and he has recently taken actions that give the appearance that his own interests are being prioritised.” JAT Capital Management recommended Marcus Lemonis, chairman and CEO of Camping World, a retailer specialising in camping and recreational vehicles (RVs), to lead in Johnson’s place. Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData, noted that, when picking its next CEO, “the company needs to appoint someone who is highly skilled at driving an online business and who, preferably, has some degree of experience in brand building within the home retail space. The problem for Bed Bath & Beyond is that it has a multitude of issues it needs to address so the CEO needs to be very skilled across a number of areas to move things forward.” How Bed Bath & Beyond can revitalise the brand Saunders told Inside Retail there were two major factors that led to Bed Bath & Beyond’s current situation. “The first is a pullback on spending by core customer groups, many of which are still being impacted by inflation and are reducing spend on things related to the home,” Saunders explained. “The second, is that Overstock continues to fall off the consumer radar and is not drawing in customers, even to browse, like it used to. Overstock has always been a brand that comes way down the batting order in terms of unprompted awareness and remains well below par in terms of retailers people think about using for home products. The worrying thing here is that the rebrand to Bed Bath & Beyond was supposed to help remedy this issue but, so far, does not seem to have done so.” Moving forward, Saunders recommends that the company work on streamlining their product offerings. “Overstock needs to work on rationalising the range, creating a much more coherent offer, and developing a much more distinct position in the market. At present, the new proposition feels too disjointed and confusing. It lacks inspiration and comes across as a seemingly random selection of homewares – which is a problem Overstock has always suffered from.” Saunders added, “Thought will also need to be given to marketing the new Bed Bath & Beyond which, without stores, needs to make much more noise to remain on the radar of shoppers.”