iVillage, Overstock Team Up

Overstock.com, which went public in May at $13 and is now trading in the $8 range, signed a co-branded shopping services deal with women’s media company iVillage.

Salt Lake City-based Overstock is an e-commerce “closeout” retailer offering discounted brand-name merchandise.

The company said the deal provides iVillage with additional revenues and gives Overstock.com access to a new audience at the co-branded site. Overstock.com will provide the inventory, fulfillment, site content, customer service, Web site hosting and email marketing for the co-branded site.

Financial specifics were not disclosed, but iVillage certainly could use the money – although it has survived the Internet recession so far, its stock is down to $1 a share and it has never made any money, according to figures from Multex Investor.

iVillage said it would market the new shopping service via direct email campaigns, homepage placements and links within relevant content at its site.

The marketing arrangement allows iVillage to provide visitors “with the ability to purchase brand-name, discounted products without having to control back office transactional functions …” said Douglas McCormick, chairman and CEO of iVillage.

Overstock, which reports its second quarter earnings on Monday, has been busy recently forging similar “powered by” marketing alliances, including one with the Safeway grocery store chain, which is planning a national roll-out of its Safeway Club Exclusives, the company’s first foray into selling non-food items.