Over the last decade, retail companies in bankruptcy have increasingly sold off their intellectual property for millions of dollars as online shopping outpaces brick-and-mortar sales. That trend has led to a surge in value for brand affinity and awareness, two metrics that experts use to determine the price of a retail brand, according to attorneys and investment firms familiar with these negotiations.

A customer database typically sells for roughly $10 per contact. But that figure can skyrocket when that data is connected to a specific brand, said Lopez. In the case of Pier 1, Retail Ecommerce Ventures paid nearly 10 times as much as it paid for Modell’s Sporting Goods because its customer list was larger and the attachment customers have to the brand is stronger — which requires less leg work for the new owners, he said.