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Jet is trying to save its customers money by not making a profit on the items they sell and offering all kinds of discounts from the commission they would have

by wintom 11y ago

Jet is trying to save its customers money by not making a profit on the items they sell and offering all kinds of discounts from the commission they would have made all the way to the supply chain cost and passing all of that to the customer. It's not surprising that this model clashes with retailers they are not in the business of saving people money and they certainly see the disruption this will cause and the efficiencies it will force on them. They will have to get efficient to compete if this takes off.

forthefuture 11y ago
From what I understand Jet is just giving people the money from their affiliate links which is against the terms of most if not all affiliate programs.
- stevesearer 11y ago
  But with most affiliate programs, customers would be buying through the retailers directly (which is how the affiliate sales are tracked) and receiving the items from those retailers. Does Jet have its own inventory like Amazon or are they just sending orders out to a variety of different online retailers?
  - jewel 11y ago
    I've been using jet extensively for a few months, whenever it's cheaper than amazon. A lot of the time it's cheaper than the in-store price at walmart. They definitely have their own inventory. Things like cereal and diapers ship in completely purple jet.com boxes (http://i.imgur.com/WUisXzH.jpg http://i.imgur.com/WUisXzH.jpg). It's only more obscure stuff that ships from other retailers. I think the idea is that they want to have a long tail of inventory and are willing to take a loss on those items for now, but for high-volume items they are already doing them in-house.
  - fahim305 11y ago
    Jet doesn't own the inventory, it's simply a marketplace model (similar to Amazon FBA, or most of Alibaba's business in Asia)
    - Rickasaurus 11y ago
      Jet has a few warehouses now.
    - wintom 11y ago
      That is false. Jet has warehouses to cover the whole U.S. With two day shipping on core items. As well as a marketplace like the other businesses you mentioned.
- wintom 11y ago
  That is false. Jet is giving its customers all the commission they would have made, all of the supply chain savings they can get out of not having physical stores, paying with certain credit cards like Costco does, as well as any other savings the technology can squeeze out. They are giving all of that back to the customer. For the Affiliate portion of their business they are giving jet cash to customers. That is a small portion of their business 15%, they are doing that as a value add for people who pay for the membership.
  - forthefuture 11y ago
    It is not false. At the risk of pasting the entire content of the article here... >Many of the companies whose brands were removed from the Jet Anywhere program appeared to be unaware that they were listed on the site when contacted by The Wall Street Journal. >Spokespeople for Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target Corp., Staples Inc., and Estée Lauder Cos.—who all had their links removed from Jet Anywhere—said Jet isn’t a partner. >A spokeswoman for skin care company Kiehl’s, a unit of L’Oréal, said Kiehl’s had “requested to end the direct affiliate relationship as procedures outlined in our current affiliate program weren't being followed.” >Online fashion marketplace Bluefly Inc. was surprised to see its brand had been added to Jet Anywhere, said Chief Marketing Officer Carly Rosenberg, a program Bluefly was never told about even though it had been in discussions with Jet since last year to sell products directly on its site. “I felt a little blindsided by it,” said Ms. Rosenberg, “I just think they went about it the wrong way.” Yes, Jet has their own retail operation, but they are also breaking the terms of many affiliate programs with "Jet Anywhere" by paying people to use affiliate links.
tyingq 11y ago
As a retailer myself, I wouldn't be thrilled with the model where the customer pays with their credit card on jet.com, then jet.com pays me with their own credit card and contact info. Not because I don't want the customer saving money, but because I am now not clear on who the customer actually is. What happens if there are customer service issues, an out of stock situation, returns, refunds, chargebacks, etc? Is Jet.com prepared to deal with all of that in this middle-man setup?
- dsugarman 11y ago
  they don't pay you with their credit card, they use ACH like every other marketplace.
  - tyingq 11y ago
    "When a Jet customer buys items that aren’t in its inventory or available from partner merchants, a Jet employee buys the items from another website and has them shipped directly to the customer." http://www.wsj.com/articles/frenzy-around-shopping-site-jet-com-harks-back-to-dot-com-boom-1437359430 http://www.wsj.com/articles/frenzy-around-shopping-site-jet-... Edit: The context is that the article at the top of this thread is showing one way they are sort of "faking" partners. The concierge model I'm referencing is another. Hopefully, it's a temporary thing, because it's messy.
- stevesearer 11y ago
  There was a service a few years ago called NetPlenish which would basically find you the best deal on the cart of items you were looking for from various online retailers like walgreens.com, soap.com, walmart.com, etc... I used it a few times, but it was confusing who I was supposed to get customer service from when there were problems with the order. You would pay NetPlenish, who would process the order because the item was listed in stock. But if the item was out of stock and your order was messed up, who do you call? Who refunds you? NetPlenish or Walgreens? or in this case Jet?
- toomuchtodo 11y ago
  > I wouldn't be thrilled with the model where the customer pays with their credit card on jet.com, then jet.com pays me with their own credit card and contact info. While not retail, this isn't uncommon. When I book a hotel through HotelTonight's app, the last 4 of their corporate mastercard shows up on the receipt I'm given by the front desk.
phpnode 11y ago
It's not a new concept, in the UK, Quidco[0] has been doing this for a decade[1], the only difference here seems to be the paid membership system whereas quidco shave a fraction off for themselves. [0] http://www.quidco.com/ http://www.quidco.com/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidco

by wintom 11y ago

forthefuture 11y ago

From what I understand Jet is just giving people the money from their affiliate links which is against the terms of most if not all affiliate programs.

stevesearer 11y ago
But with most affiliate programs, customers would be buying through the retailers directly (which is how the affiliate sales are tracked) and receiving the items from those retailers. Does Jet have its own inventory like Amazon or are they just sending orders out to a variety of different online retailers?
- jewel 11y ago
  I've been using jet extensively for a few months, whenever it's cheaper than amazon. A lot of the time it's cheaper than the in-store price at walmart. They definitely have their own inventory. Things like cereal and diapers ship in completely purple jet.com boxes (http://i.imgur.com/WUisXzH.jpg http://i.imgur.com/WUisXzH.jpg). It's only more obscure stuff that ships from other retailers. I think the idea is that they want to have a long tail of inventory and are willing to take a loss on those items for now, but for high-volume items they are already doing them in-house.
- fahim305 11y ago
  Jet doesn't own the inventory, it's simply a marketplace model (similar to Amazon FBA, or most of Alibaba's business in Asia)
  - Rickasaurus 11y ago
    Jet has a few warehouses now.
  - wintom 11y ago
    That is false. Jet has warehouses to cover the whole U.S. With two day shipping on core items. As well as a marketplace like the other businesses you mentioned.
wintom 11y ago
That is false. Jet is giving its customers all the commission they would have made, all of the supply chain savings they can get out of not having physical stores, paying with certain credit cards like Costco does, as well as any other savings the technology can squeeze out. They are giving all of that back to the customer. For the Affiliate portion of their business they are giving jet cash to customers. That is a small portion of their business 15%, they are doing that as a value add for people who pay for the membership.
- forthefuture 11y ago
  It is not false. At the risk of pasting the entire content of the article here... >Many of the companies whose brands were removed from the Jet Anywhere program appeared to be unaware that they were listed on the site when contacted by The Wall Street Journal. >Spokespeople for Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Target Corp., Staples Inc., and Estée Lauder Cos.—who all had their links removed from Jet Anywhere—said Jet isn’t a partner. >A spokeswoman for skin care company Kiehl’s, a unit of L’Oréal, said Kiehl’s had “requested to end the direct affiliate relationship as procedures outlined in our current affiliate program weren't being followed.” >Online fashion marketplace Bluefly Inc. was surprised to see its brand had been added to Jet Anywhere, said Chief Marketing Officer Carly Rosenberg, a program Bluefly was never told about even though it had been in discussions with Jet since last year to sell products directly on its site. “I felt a little blindsided by it,” said Ms. Rosenberg, “I just think they went about it the wrong way.” Yes, Jet has their own retail operation, but they are also breaking the terms of many affiliate programs with "Jet Anywhere" by paying people to use affiliate links.

tyingq 11y ago

As a retailer myself, I wouldn't be thrilled with the model where the customer pays with their credit card on jet.com, then jet.com pays me with their own credit card and contact info. Not because I don't want the customer saving money, but because I am now not clear on who the customer actually is. What happens if there are customer service issues, an out of stock situation, returns, refunds, chargebacks, etc? Is Jet.com prepared to deal with all of that in this middle-man setup?

dsugarman 11y ago
they don't pay you with their credit card, they use ACH like every other marketplace.
- tyingq 11y ago
  "When a Jet customer buys items that aren’t in its inventory or available from partner merchants, a Jet employee buys the items from another website and has them shipped directly to the customer." http://www.wsj.com/articles/frenzy-around-shopping-site-jet-com-harks-back-to-dot-com-boom-1437359430 http://www.wsj.com/articles/frenzy-around-shopping-site-jet-... Edit: The context is that the article at the top of this thread is showing one way they are sort of "faking" partners. The concierge model I'm referencing is another. Hopefully, it's a temporary thing, because it's messy.
stevesearer 11y ago
There was a service a few years ago called NetPlenish which would basically find you the best deal on the cart of items you were looking for from various online retailers like walgreens.com, soap.com, walmart.com, etc... I used it a few times, but it was confusing who I was supposed to get customer service from when there were problems with the order. You would pay NetPlenish, who would process the order because the item was listed in stock. But if the item was out of stock and your order was messed up, who do you call? Who refunds you? NetPlenish or Walgreens? or in this case Jet?
toomuchtodo 11y ago
> I wouldn't be thrilled with the model where the customer pays with their credit card on jet.com, then jet.com pays me with their own credit card and contact info. While not retail, this isn't uncommon. When I book a hotel through HotelTonight's app, the last 4 of their corporate mastercard shows up on the receipt I'm given by the front desk.

phpnode 11y ago

It's not a new concept, in the UK, Quidco[0] has been doing this for a decade[1], the only difference here seems to be the paid membership system whereas quidco shave a fraction off for themselves. [0] http://www.quidco.com/ http://www.quidco.com/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidco https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quidco