Re:Confirmed: Walmart buys Jet.com for $3B in cash
by figgis on Tuesday August 09, 2016 @08:14PM
(#12258615)
> When a consumer buys a product on their site - they have employees purchase from retailers or suppliers and ship.
Walmart brings the solution to that to the table. They already have the merchandise, and infrastructure. While the general opinion of Walmart is that they are terrible, Walmart's distribution and transportation infrastructure is King in that world.
Currently Jet.com fulfills orders by just going to the stores and purchasing and shipping.
So they've been eating the cost of shipping and overhead with no margins and have zero loyalty because they don't really have a unique value proposition.
They failed with their initial subscription model. They say they can keep costs low with their technology and rewards based shopping but they haven't proven anything.
It gets better with Walmart though - now they have a supplier and distribution hub that has great relationships with countless vendors.