
Jet.com raises $500M from Fidelity at $1B pre - muzz
http://fortune.com/2015/11/04/jet-fundraising-fidelity/
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dmsimpkins
I've really enjoyed reading about the technology behind Jet. They are
definitely doing some cool stuff with their dynamic pricing engine and
advertising (see this post:
[http://techgroup.jet.com/blog/2015/08-17-realtime-pricing-
re...](http://techgroup.jet.com/blog/2015/08-17-realtime-pricing-realtime-
advertising/index.html)).

However, I've found the site to be a bit strange at times regarding pricing
due to their inventory model. For example, a month ago I bought a large pack
of diapers for around $30. A very good deal. Then, a few weeks later when I
chose the the option to purchase the same item as before, the same pack of
diapers appeared as $80. Very strange.

I've found similar pricing irregularities throughout the site. It's still very
possible to find good deals, but I feel that people will be wary to use the
site regularly if they cannot count on the item they want always being in
stock at a competitive price. Perhaps I'm using Jet the wrong way. It's very
possible that they don't care about being a one-stop shop like Amazon, and
instead want to rely on traffic from very specific hits through Google
Shopping. Regardless, it seems like they need focus, as right now the site
seems to be in limbo.

~~~
dman
Price volatility is what turned me off them - I had a price change on me in
the same session.

~~~
samstave
Haha sounds like uber surge pricing

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driverdan
I'm curious what they did for due diligence. There are a _lot_ of complaints
about how Jet works (or doesn't), how scammy sellers are doing bait and
switch, and how customer support isn't helpful. Their reputation isn't very
good. I know I won't order from them until they add seller transparency and
better support.

~~~
pravda
I love Jet.com

Great prices, at least after their recent 20% discount. Got (5 cases!) cat
food for less then it would cost locally and it gets delivered right to the
door!

I can't imagine they made any money off me. I might even be a 'loss leader'.

If $500M from Fidelity keeps the ship floating for a while, God bless them!

~~~
rebeccaskinner
I thought the entire point was that you were paying as close to cost as
possible and they made their money off subscription fees?

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mikenyc
That was hurting their growth so they dropped the fee.
[http://fortune.com/2015/10/07/online-shopping-jet-
com/](http://fortune.com/2015/10/07/online-shopping-jet-com/)

~~~
wmeredith
Making money was hurting their growth, so they stopped. Ah, the ol' Amazon
model.

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arbuge
That describes alot of companies besides Amazon if you insert "for a while"
after "stopped".

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ruddct
Can someone explain how Jet's business model isn't just selling (or rather,
dropshipping) dollars for $0.90?

~~~
ck2
Remember "buy.com" years ago which also was going to "take on amazon".

They did the same discounts and went under, bought by rakuten which then
promptly exposed customer credit card info.

They are limping along today.

I suspect jet.com's end game is to be bought.

~~~
arethuza
Value America was another good one - I never even noticed them when they were
active but there was at least one moderately entertaining book about their
antics that made my own adventures in the dot.com boom seem quite tame.

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StriverGuy
Wal-Mart should buy Jet.Com.

Wal-Mart has over 4500 forward shipping centers throughout the country and can
leverage them to beat Amazon prices. Walmart would be able to leverage the
Jet.com tech brand cache and technology stack, a place where Walmart as a
brand has utterly failed to capitalize.

~~~
godzillabrennus
When I ordered from Jet.com it came from Walmart.

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ck2
Jet first has to actually ship orders to stay in business.

Google for jet.com and "order canceled" and you'll get the idea.

It's a strange business model.

Not sure what they are doing with half a billion dollars since they don't
stock any inventory themselves like Amazon.

~~~
notjustanymike
I did. Then I googled amazon.com and "order canceled" and saw the same thing.

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ChuckMcM
The tricky bit is who cancelled the order I think, Jet uses a "speculative"
pricing model as far as I can tell, they think they can get you that price but
then will bail if they cannot, see [https://jet.com/purchase-
terms](https://jet.com/purchase-terms) so if you order something and you think
"wow I got a great price on that." and then you get email that the order was
cancelled because they couldn't get the purchase to go through, you would be
annoyed.

~~~
ck2
If they want to run a website where you "might" get something at a great
price, that's fine - but they have to advertise it that way and instead of a
"buy" or "checkout" button, they need to say "I feel lucky, maybe they will
ship me this, but maybe not"

If they were straight up about it with good communication, that's fine then.
But they cannot pretend to be as good as amazon when they are not even a
shadow of amazon.

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wahsd
"...Smartest way to shop and save on pretty much anything"

I think someone should explain to them what "smart" and "saving" mean. I just
browsed some of their stuff and it seems that pretty much everything they list
has a 20-40% markup over getting it at actual smart places, let alone just at
a regular store. "Smart" for them if they can trick people? Is that the point
I'm missing?

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coleca
Looks like it may not be a done deal for that $500m.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/jet-is-reportedly-close-to-
ru...](http://www.businessinsider.com/jet-is-reportedly-close-to-running-out-
of-cash-2015-11)

Hope it's not true. Love to see competition in retail. Some of their ideas
around up sells and targeted offers are completely obvious and yet no one is
doing it. So tired of looking for and purchasing a product on AMZN or any
other eComm site to be bombarded with offers for the same product or similar
products. If I searched and purchased a red stapler on your site don't give me
ads for another stapler, try and sell me staples or maybe paper. Just not
another stapler. It's not a consumable.

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jw989
The main problem I have with Jet.com is that never have I or anyone I know
(limited in breadth but still) thought "well, Amazon isn't providing me with
what I need so I'll go to jet.com for this"

If anyone has had an experience like this I would love to hear it.

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KasianFranks
I think we've peaked.

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wahsd
Which means we have about another couple months left? The unicorn herds will
ride for as long as the rainbows sprinkle glitter.

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theklub
I thought we peaked the minute "unicorn" became a thing.

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eistrati
I admire what they do, but I definitely don't understand how they do it :)

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jazzyk
The proven business model: sell at a loss, but make it up in volume.

Proven to go bust, that is.

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wahsd
I'm not sure I understand the whole selling at a loss thing. Their stuff's
expensive unless I'm just doing it wrong.

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MichaelGG
Of note, Jet.com uses F#. Business model aside, at least this might quash
complaints from founders or managers that F# isn't useful or might decrease
valuations (I've actually heard that one)

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coleca
I heard their CTO give a talk that F# was an advantage for them because being
based in NYC there are a lot of F# developers due to the finance industry.
Your mileage may vary outside of NYC.

~~~
MichaelGG
Interesting. Though for any significant codebase, I can't imagine F# being the
limiting factor. Any C# dev that couldn't work with F# probably isn't someone
you want to hire in the first place. (Goes for pretty much any language.)

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autobahn
Jet's going to fail once the VC-subsidized deals go away.

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mesozoic
I wonder what the liquidation terms were but even and highly favorable
investor ones this one seems very bubbly.

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lukasm
2x liquidation preference with 4x cap?

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harryh
Almost certainly not. Jet isn't an established business with real
traction/growth cashflow. This is definitely a real venture play. It'll either
work and they'll be huge or it won't and it'll be worthless.

