Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B • Hacker News Board

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#161

Post by overcast » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 11:26 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #97

michaelbuddy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jet, based on its promotional content is heavy into the home products category. Walmart would love to knock them out to absorb that competition to getting delivery and even subscription delivery of home products. So it may be the price Walmart is willing to pay to ensure nobody is making Jet their new source for houseware products and avoiding the WalMart Brand. We also don't know what else Jet has in the pipeline, n…

What surprises me is that in many European countries, you can now order ALL of your groceries delivered. You place an order, and someone physically walks around a local supermarket, picks up stuff, they put on a van, and it is delivered to your home. It is actually very inexpensive (and free if you spend enough). Yet nobody in the US does that (well nobody outside of big cities). Walmart right now today has a HUGE ad…

For packaged things sure, but who wants someone else picking out potentially crummy vegetables/fruit/meats? Do you inspect them while they arrive, and then what about rejecting them? Looking through produce and meats is part of the market shopping process.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#162

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 11:26 PM UTC

chris11 wrote: post #40

joezydeco wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just got a flyer in the mail offering $10 off my next 3 purchases. That's not cheap.

Yeah, I even remember a rumor going around that they were dropshipping for some items. If something was out of stock they would get it from newegg or amazon and send it to you.

[deleted]

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#163

Post by drivingmenuts » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 11:57 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #97

michaelbuddy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jet, based on its promotional content is heavy into the home products category. Walmart would love to knock them out to absorb that competition to getting delivery and even subscription delivery of home products. So it may be the price Walmart is willing to pay to ensure nobody is making Jet their new source for houseware products and avoiding the WalMart Brand. We also don't know what else Jet has in the pipeline, n…

What surprises me is that in many European countries, you can now order ALL of your groceries delivered. You place an order, and someone physically walks around a local supermarket, picks up stuff, they put on a van, and it is delivered to your home. It is actually very inexpensive (and free if you spend enough). Yet nobody in the US does that (well nobody outside of big cities). Walmart right now today has a HUGE ad…

> Yet nobody in the US does that (well nobody outside of big cities).

Because outside of the big cities, you don't give up a minimum of 2 hours of your daily life just driving to and from work. It wouldn't make sense to have someone take of tasks like that.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#164

Post by carterehsmith » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 12:33 AM UTC

brianbreslin wrote: post #143

Jet is on pace to do $1B in sales this year (not profit, but gross merchandise value). Not bad for a company only selling stuff for 16 months. They aren't a direct competitor to Amazon in model, they are closer to a seamless version of Flipkart in india. My friend who works there says they see Target as their competition more so than Amazon, and that could be what Walmart sees too. I do wish we could have seen where…

I mean, it is not really hard to make $1B in sales if you have >$500M to burn ;)

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#165

Post by michaelbuddy » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 12:41 AM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #97

michaelbuddy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jet, based on its promotional content is heavy into the home products category. Walmart would love to knock them out to absorb that competition to getting delivery and even subscription delivery of home products. So it may be the price Walmart is willing to pay to ensure nobody is making Jet their new source for houseware products and avoiding the WalMart Brand. We also don't know what else Jet has in the pipeline, n…

What surprises me is that in many European countries, you can now order ALL of your groceries delivered. You place an order, and someone physically walks around a local supermarket, picks up stuff, they put on a van, and it is delivered to your home. It is actually very inexpensive (and free if you spend enough). Yet nobody in the US does that (well nobody outside of big cities). Walmart right now today has a HUGE ad…

one or more shops near me in the U.S. suburbs has delivery. It's inexpensive but to keep it efficient the product range is more narrow. So they wont be getting your particular favorites, the essentials are covered. as somebody else pointed out though inspecting produce for delectability isn't going to be their concern.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#166

Post by jaegerpicker » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 12:58 AM UTC

losteverything wrote: post #124

Someone1234 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What surprises me is that in many European countries, you can now order ALL of your groceries delivered. You place an order, and someone physically walks around a local supermarket, picks up stuff, they put on a van, and it is delivered to your home. It is actually very inexpensive (and free if you spend enough). Yet nobody in the US does that (well nobody outside of big cities). Walmart right now today has a HUGE ad…

Recently went on vacation and used grocery pickup at a Maine grocery store and picked up groceries for the entire week. Awesome service but I asked the lady how many pick ups they did this Sunday and she said 35. and I said what's the most and she said 65 - 70. Grocery pick-up has not caught on yet and grocery delivery I would imagine is even less than that

I live in Maine, I bet it's Hannaford that you did this with. I use it all the time, in fact I almost never actually into the store anymore if I can avoid it. Not sure I could live with out it any more! :)

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#167

Post by jimjimjim » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 1:00 AM UTC

brianbreslin wrote: post #83

ktamura wrote: post #55

This buyout is based on FUD, and FUD-based investment is a recipe for disaster. From the OP: >But for both Jet and Wal-Mart, Amazon’s frenzy of warehouse construction and fast delivery—as quickly as one-hour—have proved formidable. The retailer has logged three straight quarters of record profit while locking in an estimated 60 million members to its $99-per-year Prime service, cultivating a loyal customer base and g…

Walmart has already spent close to $12B funding walmart.com/labs and not made a dent in catching Amazon. Jet has a super smart team looking at ways to gain margins in areas amazon is ignoring. short term their investors won't appreciate this buy.

my guess is that the IT department for the whole organization for x years totals $12B. Some IT manager probably mentioned to someone near the c-suite that they were working on some cool internet commerce stuff. And then after the story has been passed on and on it gets reduced down to "$12B spent on labs"

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#168

Post by axlprose » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 2:11 AM UTC

Splendor wrote: post #115

nostromo wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If pivoting means you're not smart, HN would be the stupidest place on the internet.

I think the point was the lack of success, not smarts.

And the response was clearly questioning the argument put in favor of that point, thus making the point itself questionable.

It's a strange world when a startup that was just founded 2 years ago and is steadily growing [0][1][2], is considered a failure because they haven't already wiped out a 22-year-old goliath that has had a long history of struggling to break even, and operates in several other markets (AWS, Streaming Video, Devices, etc) that aren't this startup's main focus.

[0] https://www.snapagency.com/blog/jet-com-vs-amazon-mean-ecomm...

[1] https://www.internetretailer.com/2016/04/15/jetcom-predicts-...

[2] http://time.com/money/4337044/jet-com-lowest-prices-amazon-w...

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#169

Post by z6 » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 2:16 AM UTC

morgante wrote: post #23

_RPM wrote: post #19

Jet.com was founded in 2014. How did they get enough traction to be viable when there are so many other online retailers like Amazon, and all the other brick and mortar retailers that also have large online presence.

Basically, a prominent founder who had previously battled Amazon. That led to a ton of funding which allowed for extremely aggressive marketing and customer acquisition, not to mention plenty of media coverage. If anyone can battle Amazon, it's probably Jet. I can see why Walmart would want Jet (and Marc) in their camp.

I'd love to see their return customer number. If you hand out money, user acquisition if measured by signups is pretty meaningless.

I tried this site once and it was a disastrous experience. Their customer service is horrendous, and the complete opposite of Amazon. After that purchase it became pretty clear to me that Amazon has nothing to worry about.

This reminds me, I have around $100 in credits from 1 failed order because they messed up multiple times. Would be awesome if they sold Amazon gift cards.

Re: Wal-Mart in Talks to Buy Web Retailer Jet.com for $3B

#170

Post by adevine » Thu, Aug 04, 2016, 2:43 AM UTC

axlprose wrote: post #168

Splendor wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point was the lack of success, not smarts.

And the response was clearly questioning the argument put in favor of that point, thus making the point itself questionable. It's a strange world when a startup that was just founded 2 years ago and is steadily growing [0][1][2], is considered a failure because they haven't already wiped out a 22-year-old goliath that has had a long history of struggling to break even, and operates in several other markets (AWS, Stre…

My question, though, is whether Jet is "losing money on every sale but making it up in volume." That is, your articles mention how jet aims to be about 5% cheaper than Amazon, but they say nothing about the long term cost structure that would let them sell at these cheaper prices and still be profitable.