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Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

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Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#11

Post by coldcode »

jsnathan wrote: post #3

> For example, The Wall Street Journal recently bought 22 items from Jet. Twelve were shipped to the Journal by retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Nordstrom Inc., according to sales receipts. > Jet’s prices for the same 12 items added up to $275.55, an average discount of about 11% from the prices Jet paid for those items on other retailers’ websites. Jet’s total cost, which also includes est…

I remember my employer once tried to get a contract to build a new online store for a electronics retailer in the late 90's. They boasted they sold stuff at less than they paid for it and would someday make it up later. We lost the bid but they went out of business and never paid the winner, IBM.

If you charge less than you pay for you should go out of business, not raise more money. Giving money to a negative retailer is gambling not investment.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#12

Post by wintom »

swingbridge wrote: post #10

Had a beta access code and the site is a mess. They boast about having the lowest prices on the web but if you actually check their prices they don't. On many items they were quite a bit more expensive than other well known sites (but we're still quoting "savings" in the checkout cart.) Some items were cheaper but not by much. If their model is to beat everyone on price then that's a giant race to the bottom. If you…

Have you been on there recently? I must admit that early on it was messy... but you know its a startup in beta...

However, I disagree on the price bit. Their selection isnt as large as amazon yet but I have found them to be 5%-15% cheaper on all items that they do have.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#13

Post by marcusgarvey »

So Jet is a very risky bet. And partly backed by Norwest Venture Partners. Which is in turn owned by Wells Fargo. Who is apparently violating the spirit of the Volcker Rule, if not the letter. http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/21/us-wellsfargo-priv...

Remember this at the next bailout. http://www.cheatsheet.com/business/stock-news/3-reasons-the-...

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#14

Post by downandout »

Given the level of investment here, I have to hope that there is much more to this company's model than is discussed in the article - otherwise this is a 100% guaranteed loss for investors. When that loss happens, it will be bad for any other tech startups that try to raise money after it.

The money actually being used to fund this black hole is coming from large institutions that trust the judgment of the VCs and usually have no say in the funds' investment decisions. Tech valuations are only high at the moment because there is currently an imbalance of investment capital chasing private tech deals. One sure way to correct that imbalance is for VCs to betray the confidence that institutions are placing in their judgment by blowing hundreds of millions of dollars in massive, obvious blunders like this.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#15

Post by [deleted] »

wintom wrote: post #12
swingbridge wrote: post #10

Had a beta access code and the site is a mess. They boast about having the lowest prices on the web but if you actually check their prices they don't. On many items they were quite a bit more expensive than other well known sites (but we're still quoting "savings" in the checkout cart.) Some items were cheaper but not by much. If their model is to beat everyone on price then that's a giant race to the bottom. If you…

Have you been on there recently? I must admit that early on it was messy... but you know its a startup in beta... However, I disagree on the price bit. Their selection isnt as large as amazon yet but I have found them to be 5%-15% cheaper on all items that they do have.

[deleted]

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#16

Post by xur17 »

wintom wrote: post #12
swingbridge wrote: post #10

Had a beta access code and the site is a mess. They boast about having the lowest prices on the web but if you actually check their prices they don't. On many items they were quite a bit more expensive than other well known sites (but we're still quoting "savings" in the checkout cart.) Some items were cheaper but not by much. If their model is to beat everyone on price then that's a giant race to the bottom. If you…

Have you been on there recently? I must admit that early on it was messy... but you know its a startup in beta... However, I disagree on the price bit. Their selection isnt as large as amazon yet but I have found them to be 5%-15% cheaper on all items that they do have.

I agree - their prices are definitely lower.

It concerns me a little bit that they're losing money on each order - that's fine if they plan to have the same discounts at scale, and are just testing, but if they are just using low prices to get people to join, it seems troubling.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#18

Post by swingbridge »

xur17 wrote: post #16
wintom wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you been on there recently? I must admit that early on it was messy... but you know its a startup in beta... However, I disagree on the price bit. Their selection isnt as large as amazon yet but I have found them to be 5%-15% cheaper on all items that they do have.

I agree - their prices are definitely lower. It concerns me a little bit that they're losing money on each order - that's fine if they plan to have the same discounts at scale, and are just testing, but if they are just using low prices to get people to join, it seems troubling.

The business model sounds deeply flawed. The fact that they've been burning cash like crazy (like building a fancy HQ before even getting any revenue) isn't a great sign. I wish them luck but things are going to get real ugly real quick if they don't figure this thing out fast.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#19

Post by treeface »

teh_klev wrote: post #17
LukeB_UK wrote: post #2

Non-paywalled mirror: https://archive.is/QritD

Thanks...how does one do that with paywalled articles. I've tried to get archive.is to do this in the past but it just captures the paywalled article summary/

For most of them, you just have to google the article's title and click the link from there.

Re: Frenzy Around Shopping Site Jet.com Harks Back to Dot-Com Boom

#20

Post by gmarx »

jsnathan wrote: post #3

> For example, The Wall Street Journal recently bought 22 items from Jet. Twelve were shipped to the Journal by retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., J.C. Penney Co. and Nordstrom Inc., according to sales receipts. > Jet’s prices for the same 12 items added up to $275.55, an average discount of about 11% from the prices Jet paid for those items on other retailers’ websites. Jet’s total cost, which also includes est…

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