Wal-Mart Pushes Jet.com Strategy -- WSJ
September 30 2017 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Sarah Nassauer
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 30, 2017).
One year after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought Jet.com for $3.3
billion, shoppers will get a glimpse of how it hopes to use the
startup to battle Amazon.com Inc.
Jet plans to start selling apparel from niche online sellers
that Wal-Mart has acquired over the past year, according to people
familiar with the matter. It is expected to add clothes from
ModCloth in coming months and Bonobos men's apparel next year, one
person said.
Ahead of the winter holidays, the website also plans to
introduce a new line of private-label food and other grocery
items.
The moves are part of a broader effort by Wal-Mart U.S.
e-commerce head Marc Lore to offer shoppers specialty goods that
can't be bought elsewhere and to differentiate Jet from its parent
brand. They also shift Jet, which launched in 2015, away from its
roots as a discount retailer.
Jet will start selling about 60 food and household products over
the next two months, later adding baby, beauty and pet products
that aim to give shoppers a more premium option than Wal-Mart's
existing store-brand selection, one of these people said. The items
will use shipping-friendly packaging, not packaging designed for
products sold primarily from store shelves.
A spokeswoman for Jet confirmed that a line of private-brand
products called Uniquely J would be released, designed with the
"metro millennial consumer" in mind. The items will include coffee,
olive oil, laundry detergent and paper towels, she said.
The Hoboken, N.J., unit is also developing a bed-in-a-box brand,
said another person familiar with the plans, similar to the
compressed mattresses touted by a growing group of startups. The
mattresses are mainly sold online and shipped to consumer's
homes.
Wal-Mart said Wednesday it would expand its baby brand Parent's
Choice, adding bedding, baby food and a stainless-steel sippy
cup.
Amazon is boosting its private-brand selection as well. After it
acquired Whole Foods, it quickly added the grocer's store brand,
365, to its online offerings.
Private brands don't shoulder marketing expenses, which means
they produce higher profits that can help offset the cost of
shipping orders to shoppers' homes, said Jeff Gamsey, vice
president of private brands for Boxed.com, an e-commerce company
that ships bulk goods. In its first years, Boxed developed its
Prince & Spring private label, starting with paper towels and
toilet paper. It now sells about 65 products under the brand, he
said.
As Jet embraces private and specialty brands, it has pulled back
on some costly experiments, like delivering fresh food to homes. In
recent months, Jet's fresh-food delivery service has been scaled
back and dropped from areas like Fort Bragg, N.C., while remaining
in large urban centers like New York City.
--Telis Demos contributed to this article.
Write to Sarah Nassauer at sarah.nassauer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 30, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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