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it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.
by MangoCoffee 6y ago
it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember.
- JakeWesorick 6y agoIt's a cool domain, but I don't think anyone is going to forget walmart.com exists.
- and0rsk 6y agoWhat's walmart?
- gk1 6y agoSure it’s a three-letter domain, but Walmart is one of the most recognized brand names in the US.
- benburleson 6y agoCompared to walmart.com, though, there's no reason to keep it. As a consumer, I don't really know/trust jet.com.
- jtdev 6y agoI do know Walmart, and I don’t trust or like the brand.
- dahfizz 6y agoWell, hundreds of millions Americans do. It's one of the strongest brands in the world.
- speedgoose 6y ago*In USA.
- TallGuyShort 6y agoForbes ranks it as the #26 most valuable brand in the world: https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/ https://www.forbes.com/powerful-brands/list/. Just because it's an almost entirely American brand doesn't change anything GP said.
- ativzzz 6y agoInteresting it's so low, considering they are the highest revenue company in the world (as of 2018) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_by_r...
- speedgoose 6y agoThe brand is absent from most countries.
- buzzerbetrayed 6y ago> Just because it's an almost entirely American brand doesn't change anything GP said.
- speedgoose 6y agoI simply disagree that's a strong brand worldwide because it's only a USA brand.
- thejynxed 6y agoWalmart has stores everywhere but the North & South Poles. There's a reason they employ over 2.3 million people.
- TallGuyShort 6y agoNo one even said "strong brand worldwide" they said "one of the strongest brands in the world". Does a professional athlete have to compete overseas to be recognized as being exceptionally good at their sport, if they absolutely dominate in their home country, and their home country happens to be very significant in that sport? If you're going to get hung up on details, don't reword them. Would someone who qualifies for the Olympics for the first time from a powerhouse country not qualify as "one of the best in the world"?
- alharith 6y agoStrongest is an understatement. It is projected to account for 5% of the total US GDP this year.
- birdyrooster 6y agoYeah it’s like milk tons of people drink it but it’s for babies.
- ckocagil 6y agoMillions (billions?) trust Facebook too. Yet, Facebook kept the Instagram brand and it paid off.
- dcist 6y agoAt the time of acquisition, I think the Instagram brand was more popular and recognized among users than Jet.com. Jet.com didn't become a phenomenon before Walmart acquired it. Instagram was already extremely popular when FB bought it.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoInstagram had like less than 20mn users when FB acquired it. If you peruse the HN comments from the time, many of them were convinced that this was a waste of money (though not the top comment, interestingly enough): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3817840
- unclebucknasty 6y agoDifferent situation. Facebook and Instagram are social brands that signal which demo you'll find on each platform (at least at the time of acquisition). Instagram's branding/demo was a big part of what FB was after.
- stickfigure 6y agoFacebook keeps Instagram (and Whatsapp) as a form of market segmentation. Just like how Proctor & Gamble sells eleven (!) different brands of laundry detergent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Procter_%26_Gamble_brands#Laundry_detergents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Procter_%26_Gamble_bra... Presumably they capture more of the overall market for detergent that way. Maybe the same mechanisms do not apply to retail in general.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoYeah, it was explained to me once by a bid for shelf space. If there are 2 brands, a new one gets 1/3rd of the space, if there are 15, then a new one gets 1/16. Therefore making P&G more money.
- Symmetry 6y agoThere are class complications that make using the Walmart brand potentially problematic, though. People with college degrees who would shop at Whole Foods or Costco or boutique retailers look down on Costco but wouldn't have those associations with Jet.com. I'm sure Walmart has researched this but keeping both brands would seem worth it from that angle.
- dehrmann 6y agoThe first time I saw jet.com, I assumed it was for Jet Magazine. Maybe someone things it has to do with jet planes. I wouldn't want to have to do brand marketing for such an ambiguous name.
- jonas21 6y agoIt works both ways though. People who would never set foot in a Walmart might order from walmart.com for convenience or price or because they don't really think about it when ordering online. If they have a positive experience online, that could affect their impression of the Walmart brand in general.
- MiroF 6y ago> Costco I'm almost certain you meant to say Walmart here.
- Symmetry 6y agoNo. People who shop at Costco tend to have the spare cash to buy lots of stuff at once and have lots of space to put it and so draw from a very different demographic than Walmart does, mostly. It's a bit of a Sam Vimes boot theory thing. https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Economic_Injustice https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Sam_Vimes_Theory_of_Econom...
- meter 6y agoYou said “Costco” twice. The second time appears to be a typo.
- naravara 6y agoWalmart's brand is pretty toxic in certain corners, so I could see Jet being an "alternative" to dodge the association. Kind of like Tab/Diet Coke. But I think basically anyone using Jet pretty much knew it was WalMart anyway so it didn't matter.
- Roboprog 6y agoExactly. This is the first time I’ve ever heard the name. Like the post above said, much of the Jet acquisition was likely really just to absorb the IP and expertise, anyway. That said, we recently ordered some patio furniture from Walmart.com after comparison shopping on Amazon and Home Depot. And I suppose next month we’ll find better deals on yet another site. Don’t get too cozy with any of these companies and keep your eyes open for price and quality drift.
- foobarbecue 6y agoWho said they're getting rid of the domain? That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do.
- Terretta 6y agosee also: buy.com -> rakuten // no amount of branding awareness tv ads are fixing the name recognition they lost with that one... still redirects though.
- edgefield0 6y agoWhy would you give up buy.com for "rakuten"?! What is rakuten anyway? Is this an established online retailer? First time I'm hearing of this company.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- zhte415 6y agoRakuten is very big in Japan, pretty established. Like Amazon/eBay, but a bit different. They've also got global but quite cautious ambitions. Interesting trivia from a friend working there, and quite unusual for a Japanese company: most (Project Management, Development, Management) internal communication above a certain job-grade level is conducted in English, including in Japan.
- twostorytower 6y agoThis is true and really neat. I was in Japan a couple years ago and met a product manager that worked at Rakuten and he told me the same thing.
- skuhn 6y agoEven worse, rakuten.com is now the former ebates site? And the former buy.com is rakuten.com/shop? Their branding strategy is garbage.
- astura 6y agoRakuten bought ebates many years back (looks like 2014) but kept the ebates branding until very recently. But, yes, it's confusing.
- dumbfounder 6y agoI am sure Walmart did the requisite analysis to figure out it was a smart move to shut the brand down. Cost to maintain brand, trajectory, number of loyal customers, etc. That isn't to say they couldn't have made a mistake, but this isn't their first rodeo, so I think you can assume some smart people looked at a bunch of angles before making the decision.
- arkades 6y agoNah. Walmart totally makes multi-million dollar business decisions with less diligence and critical analysis than random HN posters. I think of this as the social media Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect. You see comments from folks with zero insight and no doubt no specialized knowledge of the relevant industry, recognize that they are likely just making an off-the-cuff comment without any value, open the next thread where it's less obvious how little industry knowledge the posters have, and resume giving their comments the benefit of the doubt. I fall victim to it with some frequency. Almost any comments here about the medical industry, of which I'm a veteran, are just wildly ignorant - and spoken with the same strident confidence as comments about the airline industry (for example), about which commenters are likely just as profoundly ignorant. But then I don't know they're profoundly ignorant, and suddenly I think, gosh, that person has some incisive insights.
- dumbfounder 6y agoMulti-million dollar decisions (taken literally it means several million, not hundreds of millions) equate to small projects for Walmart. This is a multi-billion dollar decision. But yes, I am speaking speculatively, so take it with a grain of salt.
- paxys 6y agoBecause no multi-million dollar business has ever made a bad decision..
- arkades 6y agoOf course they have. And when they have, it's almost always because of more nuanced reasons than off-the-cuff random internet posters are privy to.
- ardy42 6y ago> it seem like a waste not to continue the jet.com. its a simple domain that is easy to remember. Seems like it would be useful to market to other demographics or customers that don't have positive associations with Walmart. I already have a preference for Target, Walmart's competitor, because I associate Walmart with prioritizing cheap over everything, including quality and style.
- SkyMarshal 6y agoIt’s also interesting they decided not to keep it as luxury brand selling upscale stuff, leveraging Walmarts infrastructure but with differently targeted marketing, loyalty programs, etc. Seems it would have been perfect for that.
- addicted 6y agoThey also have a ton of advertising costs, branding costs, marketing costs, logistic issues, etc. It probably makes a lot more sense to focus on a single brand. Walmart tried to make Jet.com focused on large cities but that didn’t do much.
- somethoughts 6y agoYes I wish they would have maintained Jet.com as their marketplace brand (i.e. e-Bay competitor) and left walmart.com as the place you can buy Walmart sourced, un-comingled, fulfilled, guaranteed merchandise.