Beyond, Inc. and The Container Store announced a new partnership that will see Beyond invest $40 million. Among other outcomes, the deal will get Bed Bath & Beyond products into The Container Store locations and give the storage-focused retailer access to Beyond’s ecommerce and omnichannel capabilities.

Beyond is No. 62 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database of the largest North American online retailers. Meanwhile, The Container Store ranks No. 337. Digital Commerce 360 currently projects that Beyond’s total web sales in 2024 will reach $1.58 billion.

Beyond web sales by year

Beyond and The Container Store’s new partnership

Beyond and The Container Store heralded the new partnership in a joint statement.

“This agreement will enable us to harness Beyond’s data platform and analytics to better identify and target customers at critical points in their purchase journeys and enhance communications with new and existing customers,” said Satish Malhotra, CEO of The Container Store. “It will allow us to expand our reach across our combined network and position us to leverage Beyond’s ecommerce expertise to further our own omnichannel tools and capabilities.”

Meanwhile, Beyond sees opportunities in The Container Store’s real estate.

“We see tremendous whitespace for The Container Store’s best-in-class, solution-based offerings across the entire Beyond portfolio, particularly within its high-margin Custom Spaces offering through the proprietary Elfa and Preston lines,” explained Marcus Lemonis, executive chairman at Beyond, Inc.

Beyond’s $40 million investment in The Container Store

The new partnership will be cemented through a $40 million investment by Beyond into The Container Store. That investment will take the form of a preferred equity transaction.

It is not a partnership of equals when it comes to both their digital commerce footprints. Beyond Inc. has a much larger suite of online offerings and manages a larger business portfolio.

The Container Store web sales by year

Still, The Container Store can leverage avenues that Beyond cannot. The Container Store, for instance, operates 102 retail locations nationwide, while Beyond’s presence is exclusively online. The Container Stores will give Beyond a retail place to showcase its wares.

How the partnership can be ‘mutually beneficial’

Juan Pellerano, digital sales expert and chief marketing officer of Swap, an ecommerce platform focused on returns, said the partnership makes sense and could be “mutually beneficial.”

“There are obvious synergies between the two companies,” Pellerano stated. “After the bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond moved to a purely digital storefront, which immediately gave them a retail footprint without the investment in brick-and-mortar.”

In turn, The Container Store will get free cross-promotion from Bed Bath & Beyond’s significant consumer base through its loyalty program and coupons.

“In practice, Bed Bath & Beyond trades in-store footprint for cross-promotion of all The Container Store locations,” Pellerano explained, adding that both retailers still face many “roadblocks.”

Among them, he said, is that Bed Bath & Beyond is still in the process of reinventing its business. Historically primarily brick-and-mortar, it emerged from bankruptcy as an online brand.

“With the minds behind Overstock.com [which became Beyond Inc. and acquired Bed Bath & Beyond] at the helm, they’re much better equipped to make the pivot, but they’ll need to attract a whole new audience of shoppers that will likely be buying with the brand for the first time,” Pellerano stated.

Meanwhile, The Container Store has challenges of its own to overcome.

“The Container Store has continued expanding in brick-and-mortar in the face of declining sales,” Pellerano assessed. “Given their continued offline approach, they’re hoping that Bed Bath & Beyond can bring that necessary jolt to their in-store foot traffic.”

Do you rank in our databases? 

Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.

Sign up

Stay on top of the latest developments in the online retail industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook and YouTube. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.