It’s been a wild ride recently for Bed Bath & Beyond. Given the many challenges the organization has experienced over the past several months, it is difficult to understate its degree of stress.
Bed Bath & Beyond will make a critical decision that will either help it survive or lead to its downfall in the wake of its financial crisis, major layoffs, store closures, and the unexpected death of the company’s finance chief.
“Will Bed Bath & Beyond reimagine itself and pull away from the brink, like Best Buy? Or will it continue to patch holes only to keep sinking, like Sears?” Jaime Katz, an analyst from Morningstar, asked.
“It sort of looks like a decision tree from where it is now. You know, our best guess is that it comes in somewhere in between,” Katz added.
Bed Bath & Beyond was an excellent firm capable of conquering many of its competitors prior to the current crisis.
Bed Bath & Beyond supplied its consumers with over 1,500 shops throughout the country in 2018, and the company’s success during the recession exceeded expectations.
As a result, it threatened other businesses such as World Market, BuyBuy Baby, and many more.
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The ‘power’ of its stores
To create the “magic,” Bed Bath & Beyond used various tactics, eventually leading to its ultimate emergence as the irrefutable market leader.
Many clients were drawn in by the 20% discount coupons and other bundles it offered.
However, localization, or letting store managers decide the merchandise that may be purchased in a particular branch, is the main factor in why Bed Bath & Beyond attracted so many consumers.
It transformed into a specially designed shop that catered to specific interests.
“I remember seeing it very distinctively when I visited a Miami store. Right, when you walk in the doors was this wild, brightly colored, Disney-themed stuff — it was so Miami. And I thought this will never sell anywhere else,” shared Amy Laskin, a former Bed Bath & Beyond employee.
New trends became a problem for the company
The business environment had evolved as Bed Bath & Beyond relied on the enticement of its physical stores, and many businesses had already begun to establish their online identities and stamp their impressions in cyberspace.
Bed Bath & Beyond struggled to keep up with the internet audience as rivals like Amazon, Wayfair, and Target, among others, gained success in online shopping.
“I would go into one meeting, and it would be, ‘We need to be … the destination for home, more upscale, home decor, more furniture.’ The next conversation would be, ‘We need to be more competitive with Amazon. We need to be the destination with everything.’… The next thing you know, we were carrying diamond jewelry like Costco does,” Laskin added.
A Bed Bath & Beyond website was designed but failed to materialize. The business was left to rely on its physical stores as a result. But when the industry started to lean more toward adopting the internet trend, a business that prioritized face-to-face marketing faced challenges.
Due to this, business sales began to plummet in 2010.
Read Also: Bed Bath & Beyond will Close One-Third of its Stores Following Fiscal Slump
The pandemic worsened the condition
As soon as the lockdowns were put into place, it became urgent to go to the internet world. With several new businesses and online retailers offering a wide variety of goods, cyberspace was crowded with brands that competed with established ones.
However, Bed Bath & Beyond made an effort to compensate for the shortfall.
By investing in the business early this year, Ryan Cohen made an effort to assist it. As Cohen’s Reddit and YouTube fans rushed to the business for merchandise, revenues briefly increased. But, unfortunately, the CEO and other important figures of the firm were regrettably evicted along with the progress.
However, Cohen gave up his holdings, which indicated a new issue for the business. Several Bed Bath & Beyond locations were closed after it, and there were also layoffs. It made the company’s suppliers more uneasy.
“We remain concerned by the magnitude of the sales declines and believe it will be challenging to win consumers back in a softer economic climate,” an analyst shared.
Photo Credit: Emily Elconin
Source: NPR
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