Zola Inc. is expanding its online wedding services platform to include a baby registry, a sign that some companies are seizing on the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and its Buybuy Baby chain to boost their own businesses.
(Bloomberg) — Zola Inc. is expanding its online wedding services platform to include a baby registry, a sign that some companies are seizing on the bankruptcy of Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. and its Buybuy Baby chain to boost their own businesses.
Zola Baby will launch in September and will include an online baby registry for expecting parents, as well as features such as cash funds to pay for diapers, babysitters or school tuition, Rachel Jarrett, Zola’s co-chief executive officer, said in an interview. Expecting parents can also choose when they want their gifts from Oxo, Cybex and other brands to be delivered to their home, Jarrett said.
“That is because there are religious and cultural reasons why people may not want the baby gifts before the baby arrives,” Jarrett said. Also, sometimes expecting parents don’t want the gifts they’ve registered for to arrive before they finish setting up a nursery, for example. Jarrett said competitors don’t have the ability to time the arrival of registry gifts.
The pending launch of Zola Baby comes as the future of one the largest baby businesses in the US remains up in the air.
A bankruptcy court has been overseeing an attempted sale of some of Bed Bath & Beyond’s assets — including its prized baby brand — since the retailer filed for Chapter 11 in April. BuyBuy Baby’s fate could be decided as soon as next week, with an auction for its assets scheduled for June 28, according to court papers. Babylist Inc., which has an online baby registry, says it plans to bid next week on Buybuy Baby’s digital assets, including the brand’s trademark and domain.
The baby brand’s sale is being conducted separately from that of Bed Bath & Beyond. The retailer has selected Overstock.com Inc. as the stalking horse bidder for its Bed Bath & Beyond intellectual property, according to court papers filed last week. Overstock’s bid sets the floor at $21.5 million for the brand, court papers show. That auction started Wednesday morning.
While Jarrett said Zola Baby’s launch is unrelated to the troubles at Bed Bath & Beyond and Buybuy Baby, the new registry is still likely to benefit from the turmoil as expecting parents seek alternatives.
Read More: Engaged Couples Have Issued Their Verdict on Bed Bath & Beyond
“There is a hole in the market regardless of what’s happening with any particular player,” Jarrett said. “There’s more babies born every year than there are weddings — so it’s a very big opportunity.”
Some couples that have used Zola for their wedding registries have been asking the company when it will start to offer an equivalent service for babies, she added, while others have been turning the features of their wedding registries into ad hoc baby registries.
Zola Baby isn’t just for couples who have used Zola’s wedding registry, Jarrett said. “We don’t want to make assumptions, for example, that you are having a baby a certain way — you may be having a surrogate, you may be adopting a baby,” she said. When Zola was founded in 2013, it was the first company that didn’t require couples to register as “bride and groom,” she added. Couples could instead say “partner and partner,” for example.
Zola Baby’s business model will be similar to its wedding registry: The company will take a portion of the sales of the items that it sells on its website or app. Zola doesn’t hold inventory.
–With assistance from Amelia Pollard.
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