Birchbox is a site that sells high-end makeup, and $10 sample box subscriptions that entice customers to try new types of high-end makeup. Walmart is a discount mega-retailer that sells lots of makeup, but hardly any of it is high end. Yet Birchbox could join the Walmart family if a rumored deal goes through. [More]
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Walmart Adds Men’s Clothing Retailer Bonobos To Its Collection Of Online Businesses
By 6.16.17
When someone says “retailers of upscale men’s fashion,” you probably don’t picture Walmart. Yet the mega-retailer is adding menswear company Bonobos, which started online and now has boutiques in cities and in Nordstrom stores, to its collection of online brands. [More]
Jet To Stop Selling Costco’s Kirkland Signature Products
By 6.13.17
If you like Costco’s Kirkland Signature line of store-brand products — encompassing everything from laundry detergent to vodka — but aren’t a Costco member, you’ve had the option of buying some Kirkland items online at Jet.com. But now that Walmart owns Jet, those Kirkland items will be going away. [More]
Diapers.com, Soap.com, And Sibling Sites To Be Folded Into Amazon On Wednesday
By 4.17.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The Amazon-owned Quidsi family of websites, including Diapers.com, Soap.com, and BeautyBar.com, is dead, but customers of those sites still have questions: Where can they shop now, and what will they do if they have a problem with an item ordered on the sites? [More]
Beloved Indie Clothing Retailer ModCloth To Become Part Of…Walmart?
By 3.15.17 — Updated: 3.17.17
Many startups dream of being acquired by a deep-pocketed benefactor, but sometimes the brand reputations of the startup and of the new parent company don’t quite match up. For example, what does the quirky online retailer ModCloth have in common with Walmart? According to news reports, what they have in common is that Walmart subsidiary Jet has purchased ModCloth. [More]
Walmart Acquisition Could Mean Most Jet Customers Have To Pay Sales Tax
By 8.11.16
E-commerce companies don’t have to collect sales tax from customers who live in states where they have no physical presence, which could be anything from their headquarters to a distribution center. That’s been one of the advantages that Jet has had in the marketplace over its chief rival Amazon, which has facilities in 28 states, including the most populous ones. Jet customers in most states don’t have to pay sales tax. However, that could change soon, after Walmart’s acquisition of the young e-commerce company. [More]
Walmart CEO Explains Why Company Spent $3 Billion On Money-Losing Jet
By 8.9.16
When the CEOs of Walmart and of Jet met for the first time, they fell in corporate love. The two men couldn’t stop envisioning the future of their companies together, sketching out their dreams of combining Walmart’s inventory and supplier relationships and Jet’s e-commerce algorithm. The companies announced their engagement this week, and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon explained what it was he ever saw in the startup, which has barely been selling to the public for a year. [More]
Winner Of The Jet Signup Contest Spent $18K On Ads, Prize Now Worth Millions
By 8.8.16
Back at the beginning of 2015, before it launched to the public, e-commerce site Jet used a contest to encourage people to refer others to the site. The winner was a Pennsylvania man who spent $18,000 on online ads, recruiting new Jet users through sites like Facebook and Swagbucks. He received 100,000 shares in the company, which he couldn’t cash in until the company went public or were sold. Today, the company announced that Walmart acquired it for $3.3 billion. [More]
Walmart Officially Acquiring Jet.com For $3 Billion
By 8.8.16
It looks like last week’s rumor mill was right on the money: this morning, Walmart has officially announced its plan to buy Jet.com. [More]
Jet.com Testing Delivery Of Fresh Groceries To Some Markets
By 5.10.16
A year into the existence of Jet.com, we’re still not really sure whether it’s the future of retail or a doomed wacky scheme. Now, in addition to taking on Amazon in the Everything Store sector, Jet is experimenting with the delivery of fresh groceries. That would mean the company is competing with urban grocery delivery leaders like Peapod and Instacart, but with its own warehouses. [More]
Jet.com Doesn’t Want To Promise Christmas Delivery, Warns Gift-Shoppers
By 12.22.15
The new site Jet was meant to be the e-commerce version of Costco, charging users a $50 annual fee (which they later dropped) in exchange for excellent discounts on a wide variety of merchandise. This is Jet’s first holiday season, and the good news is they have a lot of business. Unfortunately, that means that they can no longer guarantee delivery by Christmas. [More]
