Stein Mart IP bought for $6M, to relaunch online in 2021

Dive Brief:

Retail Ecommerce Ventures added another brand to its growing conglomerate with the $6.02 million purchase of Stein Mart's intellectual property, according to a company press release. REV submitted the winning bid at a Nov. 18 auction and it was approved on Nov. 23 by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville Division.
REV acquired the Stein Mart nameplate, its private brands, domain names, social media assets and customer data from Hilco Streambank.
The new owner expects to relaunch Stein Mart as an online-only store early next year, per the announcement.

Dive Insight:

REV added another legacy retailer to its growing portfolio of once-troubled brands. With its latest purchase, REV now owns the intellectual property of a retailer that has been around since 1908.

REV was founded last year by Alex Mehr and Tai Lopez with the intent to "renew businesses that have struggled in the age of ecommerce." Since then, REV has quickly picked up household-name retailers that were in the midst of financial difficulties, including RadioShack, Dressbarn, Pier 1 and Modell's Sporting Goods.

Stein Mart started the year with a dramatically different trajectory in mind for its future. In January, the company said that it reached a deal to be acquired and taken private by Kingswood Capital Management. By April, the deal had been canceled due to "unpredictable economic conditions" resulting from COVID-19. Then, in mid-summer, the pandemic surged in California, Texas and Florida — three states that had nearly 40% of its stores — leading to a decline in store traffic and financial struggles with vendors. In August, the discount department store filed for Chapter 11 with plans to liquidate stores.

Now REV sees a path forward for Stein Mart in expanding its e-commerce experience. "We look forward to building upon the solid foundation of existing Steinmart.com customers and introducing new loyalists to the brand by improving the online shopping experience, broadening the merchandise mix and deploying targeted social media marketing campaigns," Lopez said in a statement.

REV has reported success in flipping its acquisitions into e-commerce ventures. In August, the company said that revenue for Dressbarn, which it purchased from Ascena out of bankruptcy last year, grew 165% quarter over quarter after it was relaunched online.