Kroger Ups Its Cross-Category Game via eComm Pact With Bed Bath & Beyond

In a statement that stressed, “We’re more than just food,” the nation’s largest grocery store operator, Kroger, announced Wednesday (April 6) that it was expanding its 5-month-old digital partnership with Bed Bath & Beyond in what it is calling a “multi-category omnichannel collaboration.”

In marking the kick-off of their new nationwide pact, the two brands said they will roll out an eCommerce experience that will expand upon Kroger’s current home and baby care offerings, while leveraging the specialty retailer’s expertise and recognition in the category, to give customers a more cohesive shopping experience.

“We’re more than just food,” Kroger CMO Stuart Aitken said in the press release, noting that the expanded collaboration was aimed at allowing customers to send new parents a stroller, some diapers and a prepared meal in a single digital transaction.

Aitken said the tie-up would “save our customers time and provide a positive shopping and gifting experience.”

The C in CX

While focus on delivering a smooth Customer Experience (CX) for the entire consumer journey, from search, to browse, to basket, payment and delivery, is rising, it is also increasingly taking on another component, convenience.  At a time when consumers are actively looking for great deals, and PYMNTS data have shown that mobile phones are the “tool of choice” for one-third of shoppers, the push for step-saving simplicity is also on the rise.

“We are very pleased to expand our customer base through the extensive reach of Kroger,” said John Hartmann, COO of Bed Bath & Beyond and president of its buybuy BABY unit said, noting the array of products, including many of its private-label owned-brands, that will be available through Kroger’s website and app.

In addition, Hartman also hinted at the impending release of a store-in-store or kiosk model that could land the brand inside some of the grocer’s 3,200 brick and mortar locations that are visited by 11 million people each day.

“We’re also well underway with the planning and design of our Kroger in-store pilot program and look forward to its launch later this year,” Hartmann said.

Ahead of that, the expanded digital partnership will include “several thousand items” curated from both Bed Bath & Beyond and buybuy BABY, including bedding, bath, cookware, storage and numerous other products categories.

Doing New Things

To be sure, this grocery-household goods marketing mashup comes at an interesting and transitional time for both retailers as well as the broader industry.

For its part, Kroger has been tweaking its loyalty and rewards program lately to help keep its increasingly cost-conscious customers coming back.

“If you look at our connection to that [value-conscious] customer segment, it actually improved in the fourth quarter versus prior year,”  Kroger CEO Rodney McMullen said on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call last month.

At the same time, Bed Bath & Beyond has been undergoing a shake-up of its own, led by billionaire Chewy founder and Gamestop top-shareholder Ryan Cohen, after its stock had dropped 75% from an all time high hit in January 2021.