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Jet.com is a privately held American e-commerce company headquartered in Hoboken, New Jersey launched in July 2015. It is based on the shopping club model where users pay a specific fee to browse and purchase items at club prices. The membership costs $49.99 and is backed by a guarantee by the company stating the consumer will save at least this much through shopping on Jet. Jet was cofounded by entrepreneur Marc Lore (who previously sold his company, Diapers.com, to ecommerce site Amazon.com) along with Mike Hanrahan and Nate Faust, and the company has raised $220 million over three venture rounds from firms including Google Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital Ventures, Accel Partners, and Alibaba Group. The site was publicly launched on July 21, 2015 with a beta testing program available months before.

The main distinguishing features of the site involve the realtime pricing algorithm and membership requirements.

History
After Lore sold Diapers.com to Amazon in November 2010, he did not initially plan on starting a new venture and "retired" in Northern California. While in Northern California, Lore realized users may be willing to pay less and accept longer wait times on obtaining online goods. The flaw he saw in other competitors is catering only to wealthier customers "who care more about convenience than value." Lore set out to create a site that takes the membership model of Costco and Sam's Club and bring it to the ecommerce world. He began to peddle the idea, and after lunch with a partner at Accel Ventures, Lore was promised $1 million in seed capital to start the site. In addition to launching a site with such characteristics, Lore wanted to create a company with a culture unlike the secretive, competitive culture seen at competitors such as Amazon and Walmart.

The site launched with an initiative known as Jet Insider, a means to spread word about the company prelaunch. Once users sign up, they are given 6 months of the service for free and a link to refer friends and family to sign up. Referrers were given prizes such as lifetime memberships or 5 year memberships while the top referrers were given stock options. By January 2015, over 250,000 users had signed up for the service. Beta testers reported mixed reviews on the site's benefits.

As of July 2015, the site had 4.5 million products available for sale. After a beta launch, the site was officially launched on July 21, 2015.

Competitors
Questions on various tech sites were raised concerning Jet’s ability to deliver a service that can adequately distinguish itself from competition and gain marketshare in the ecommerce space. Amazon, the worlds largest retailer and Lore’s previous employer, largely controls the ecommerce space. Amazon Prime membership, which allows users to get free two day shipping among other novelties, comes standard in a Jet membership which is around half the price. A comparison done by Wired with Amazon Mom did not suggest great savings were attained by shopping through Jet.

Given Jet’s similarity to previous failed Dot-com bubble startups, questions are raised whether or not the site is able to scale as needed to attain significant market share and grow into a sustainable business.

Features
One of the major distinguishing features of Jet is the "realtime pricing algorithm" which, according to cofounder Marc Lore, aims to gauge "the true marginal cost of getting that product to [customers]". Items are priced based on location in distribution centers. If, for example, a user would like to purchase two items located in the same distribution center, the price would be low. If, however, the user, adds a third item located in a different distribution facility, the price increases. The site makes no profit from any of the items it sells; rather, profit is made through the membership fee. If a user waives his/her right to return an item, the item also decreases in price. Paying in a less expensive form of payment, for example, debit over credit, allows the price to be decreased as well. The Jet membership also allows users to shop at partnering stores such as TigerDirect.com and Sony Store to shop for items.

Though often compared to brick and mortar membership stores such as Sam’s Club and Costco, Jet does not require the consumer to buy large quantities of the item to realize savings.

Jet Anywhere is a program that allows Jet users to spend money at other venues and earn "JetCash" which can be spent on the actual Jet site. Sites including Petco, Nike, and Anthropologie are currently participating in the program.

Jet ran into some backlash after placing links to partnering sites without their permission in August 2015. Brands such as Macy's, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot detached themselves from Jet because of the incident. Jet removed all the links to brands that complained.

Business Model
Jet.com only profits on the membership fee of $49.99, and does not on any items sold through the site. The company plans to expand to 15 million customers by 2020, making a total profit of $750 million.

A test done by The Wall Street Journal suggested Jet had a total loss of $242.91 on 12 items purchased by the company.

The Jet Partner program allows companies to sell their products on Jet's site by registering for an account and integrating the necessary application programming interface components into their systems.