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Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round

wsj.com

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Re: Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round

#81

Post by danieltillett »

code4tee wrote: post #41

The company is burning cash like crazy, they totally threw their business plan (to only make money via membership fees) out the window within a few weeks of launching and now they've slashed their originally proposed valuation by 50% in what would seem like a desperate move to get some cash in to keep the fire burning. All for what? To try and compete with the likes of Amazon and Wall-Mart on price and logistics!?!?!…

When someone is losing money someone is making money. While business does not need to be zero sum, most of the time it is.

Re: Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round

#82

Post by dragonwriter »

HillRat wrote: post #71
unclebucknasty wrote: post #2

Jet.com doesn't seem to understand that Amazon can take losses in retail because they have margin from other sources--like AWS--as well as an overall ecosystem. And now, Amazon shows quarterly profits. They can go even deeper with discounts in retail. Jet is just not going to win by simply undercutting Amazon as a pure retail play. They're just adding to the already exorbitant burn rate generated by their marketing t…

Specifically, Amazon's marketplace subsidizes everything Amazon sells itself. That 15% cut for listing and checkout is a hell of a rentier model, and makes up for their losses in things like warehousing and shipping actual goods. If you want to compete with Amazon as a virtual big box, you're just doubling down on a model that doesn't even work for them.

Of course, maybe your plan is to be like Amazon, and lose money on that model to acquire customers, and then use the customer base to build a profitable marketplace.

I'm somewhat doubtful whether that can work, but its not entirely implausible as a strategy.

Re: Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round

#83

Post by x0x0 »

mattmaroon wrote: post #63
MichaelGG wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you're one of the folks that would not pay a premium to simply not deal with ever having to set foot in a Best Buy. Returns? Gotta go to the store. Want a sightly different model (for instance the newer Canon Powershots are a downgrade) - wait for them to get stock. Plus the obnoxiousness of going to those stores. It's great you like getting out, dealing with retail and advertisements. But I think you aren't…

Returns are WAY better at a big box store. Here's the Amazon return process. 1. Go to site, fill out a form to get a shipping label. 2. Print said form. That's pretty much all I use my printer for in 2015. I even upgraded to a wireless one so I don't have to plug my damn laptop into it every time I want to return something. 3. I probably threw away the Amazon box. Gotta dig up a suitable one from the pile of spares I…

You can do a UPS pickup; they come to your door. You can leave the package in the mailroom at work for free. You can drop it off in a random UPS store by walking in, making eye contact with the clerk, then setting it down on the counter. It's a 3 minute process to rebox, particularly if you have a tape gun from the last time you moved (seriously, buy one of these!) http://www.amazon.com/Duck-Standard-Includes-54-Yard-669332/... (amazon link, natch :D)

or you can spend 40-60 minutes driving to best buy or some other store. Even if the drive is 10 minutes each way, that's how long it costs from the time I touch my car keys to the time I'm back in my house -- walk to the parking lot, drive, park, walk, counter, stand in line, reverse the process.

Re: Facing Cash Crunch, Retailer Jet.com Racing to Complete Funding Round

#84

Post by heroh »

mst wrote: post #75
ckurose wrote: post #4

Arg paywall! Clicking through from this link goes under it to full story: http://www.techmeme.com/151104/p16#a151104p16

It's the WSJ. Paste URL into google. Click link. Presto!

this means you are allow Google to datamine every click

you should be running an add-on to scrape all tracking off Google

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