The newspaper wrote, “Despite steep losses and looming competition with Amazon.com, online retailer is in talks for capital infusion that could value it at $3 billion”.
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From new headquarters on the Frank Sinatra side of the Hudson River, the former Quidsi founder’s latest venture – Jet.com – plans to take on online shopping’s biggest players, from Amazon to Walmart.
A countdown clock on Jet.com has been ticking down for days before the official launch.
What’s not clear is if Jet will offer savings large enough to convince users to switch from Amazon’s service, which offers a wider range of products and algorithms that have learned your habits over time. Currently, e-commerce represents less than 10% of retail sales, and some analysts predict a jump to 30% by 2030. Jet’s technology figures out who has the best price for each item and shows that price to the customer. While Jet from the get-go has been all about “being the cheapest kid on the block”, Goldberg says, that’s no longer Amazon’s turf.
In addition to shopping on Jet, members will save when they shop at hundreds of Jet Anywhere stores across the web, earning JetCash to spend on future Jet.com purchases. Jet’s offerings allow it to give significant discounts passed back to the consumers simply due to every consumer being not only a bigger bargaining chip in what many would call “club buying” to save money on various categories of products.
Lore was asked how the company is going to make a profit if it will be selling goods 10-15 percent lower than their cheapest prices online.
Some retailers have expressed concern, though, that Jet’s low pricing of their products will cheapen brands.
Members can also save when they buy multiple items in a single order, depending on where it’s shipping to.
Liza Landsman, Jet’s chief consumer officer, said the testing phase was an effort to identify such problems and work through the kinks.
Ironically, Jet was founded by a former Amazon employee – Marc Lore, who was previously the COO of Wizkids, and before that made his name as the co-founder and CEO of The Pit (eBay alternative). The closer the supplier, the lower the price. Even if you do have to pay $49.99 per year for Jet’s membership, the savings on products from books to vacuum cleaners could easily make up the difference. Based on how many products consumers buy, discounts are applied. Lore has stated that Jet will remove products if requested by retailers. Jet is calling this portion of their business the “concierge” service.
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“There are a whole host of companies beyond Amazon.com adding marketplaces to their website”.
