Beyond Continues Its Confounding Actions: CEO Chandra Holt Out

eCommerce
Written By Rick Watson

At the Home Show recently, increasingly active Board Chair Marcus Lemonis - while introducing Chandra Holt (the new Bed Bath CEO) said "all the idiots are out of the room" and the company was on a stable platform going forward.

Apparently, all the idiots, but not all the costs.

CEO Chandra Holt has been ejected from this mess -- after only 5 months on the job. It increasingly looks to me like the strategy for Beyond is just to become the old Overstock, since Dave Nielsen the long-time veteran of the company is now taking over all of Overstock, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Zulily.

Chandra Holt joined in February and is already out.

Zulily was acquired in March this year and in the site is still shuttered, not yet live.

From technology to acquisitions to leadership, Overstock and Beyond have had a very strange recent history. There are more questions than answers:

* Will the technology stack be consolidated across the firms?

* Is there any brand equity left in Zulily? What's left to turn back on?

* When will these new promised brands launch?

* Is this more than just a dumpster-diving strategy?

* When will all these home loan and other new "grift-y" services launch?

Apparently all the idiots, and even more cost is out of the room. To me, this means there are several shoes to drop and the firm has not yet hit rock bottom in Marcus Lemonis' attempt to reboot the firm.

I guess the good news for him is -- no more pesky activist investors to worry about: the mess is all his own at this point as the world has moved on.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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