Jet.com has been the source of much discussion in the industry of late. It’s an innovative and different idea. But can it really be an Amazon challenger?
It’s an interesting proposition. Jet will make its money from subscriptions and will price low and cut postage costs depending on location and proximity. Here’s the Jet idea.
We reported that Jet.com is proving to be popular with buyers who use ChannelAdvisor merchants. In just a handful of weeks Jet has become CA’s number 4 marketplace in the US beating established players Sears, Best Buy, Newegg, Tesco, and Rakuten.
All that said, there’s awareness work to do too. A survey from Prosper Insights & Analytics revealed that 81% of consumers have never heard of jet.com, and 11% had heard of the site but never visited it. But 12% will shop on Jet according to another survey.
It seems to me that the Stateside enthusiasm and press gossip is great news for encouraging online sales and getting eBay and Amazon charged up because there is a competitor on the loose.
Of course, Jet.com is currently only a US service but we’d be very interested to see it over here in the UK. Would you get involved as a buyer or a seller?
5 Responses
Its an interesting idea and I think there is definitely a place for it in the market but I think the idea it could be an Amazon challenger is probably taking it a bit far.
For one thing, with the subscription model Jet are using, surely they will lack the financial muscle to properly compete with the likes of Amazon.
On the day that the new consumer law comes into force could ebay introduce a “no returns allowed” system for a discounted BIN price? Or even for auctions? If these new marketplaces offer something different then if the difference is any good then surely ebay will copy cat the idea rather than letting sales drift to competitor marketplaces. The only issue here of course is that ebay would introduce a whole raft of red tape, changes to search, changes to customer feedback, and more, when they copy cat ideas. Surely poaching marketplace initiatiatives is no different to Amazon pinching sales from any seller who is successful by selling the product direct in competition?
Seems like, there`s an existing EU-Competitor
http://www.crowdfox.com/press
So where do jet.com gather their market research from that says there is a huge market for minimalist service levels, when others such as Ebay and Amazon are constantly telling sellers they need to offer top of the line premium service (free postage, next day delivery etc etc according to their market surveys) to gain and keep customers?