The curious case of Walmart’s venture into creating a stable of hot startup DTC brands has come to a close, with the 2023 sales of Moosejaw, Bonobos and Eloquii in quick succession. So it’s a fitting time to take a look at the six-year-plus journey that began with the $3.3 billion acquisition of Jet.com. We look back and ruminate with Raj Konanahalli, a partner and managing director with AlixPartners.
Fourteen months after introducing same-day grocery delivery in New York, Walmart has shut down fresh grocery delivery through Jet.com as the operation had stumbled badly, according to Bloomberg, including price increases to offset an estimated $20 loss per delivery. Jet will continue to delivery non-perishable items in New York.
Prime Day saw 175 million items purchased by Prime members over the two days, according to Amazon, eclipsing its 2018 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales combined, while analysts pegged total GMV at $6 billion to $6.2 billion. See what other interesting statistics we found to paint a picture of the concocted “Christmas in July.”
Bolt, a San Francisco-based ecommerce checkout startup that aims to give ecommerce and DTC companies an Amazon-like experience at the bottom of the funnel, has raised $68 million in a Series B round, bringing its total venture raise to $90 million.
Walmart announced that Jet.com president Simon Belsham is expected to step down in August and that the company is merging Jet.com business into its Walmart.com ecommerce operations.
Jet.com will begin selling products from Nike in New York and offer customers more delivery options in a bid to compete with Amazon for urban, affluent consumers, according to media reports, with expansion to follow in other major markets.
Flexing its Whole Foods Market muscles, Amazon announced an expansion of same-day grocery delivery in New York and three cities in Florida, after Walmart’s Jet.com and FreshDirect both announced plans for fulfillment centers in the Bronx, NY.
Following similar moves by FedEx, Amazon and Jet.com, UPS is piloting deliveries to multi-unit New York dwellings when residents are absent, in partnership with smart lock maker Latch. Preliminary tests began in Manhattan earlier this year and have now expanded to Brooklyn.
As the battle heats up for same-day grocery delivery in urban markets, Jet.com is opening a new fulfillment center this fall in the Bronx, NY to service New York City customers with not only food in a flash but other merchandise as well. See what other players are up to in the hyper-competitive market.
Jetblack, Walmart’s new invite-only, personalized shopping service aimed at busy moms in Manhattan and Brooklyn, allows members to get same-day orders fulfilled by texting them in, at $50 a month. It’s the latest example of the beast of Bentonville seeking to go upmarket and out-innovate main rival Amazon.