After the Biggest E-Commerce Deal in History, It’s on, Amazon.
Today, Walmart made history by announcing a $3 billion deal to buy the online shopping site Jet.com.
The move boils down to one clear message aimed at the competing titan of retail:
“Hey, Amazon. Watch your back.”
Or, in other words, “We’re looking for ways to lower prices, broaden our assortment and offer the simplest, easiest shopping experience because that’s what our customers want,” explained Wal-Mart Stores, Inc President and CEO Doug McMillon.
To better understand this acquisition, dive deeper into these companies’ numbers with our infographic:
“We believe the acquisition of Jet accelerates our progress across these priorities. Walmart.com will grow faster, the seamless shopping experience we’re pursuing will happen quicker, and we’ll enable the Jet brand to be even more successful in a shorter period of time. Our customers will win. It’s another jolt of entrepreneurial spirit being injected into Walmart,” McMillion added in a statement.
It’s interesting to note one lurking concern. Jet’s funding rounds included investments from the great white in the e-commerce industry, Alibaba.
Walmart cited these notable examples of Jet’s accomplishments:
- Demonstrated ability to scale with speed, reaching $1 billion in run-rate Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and offering 12 million SKUs in its first year.
- A growing customer base of urban and millennial customers with more than 400,000 new shoppers added monthly and an average of 25,000 daily processed orders.
- Best-in-class technology that rewards customers in real time with savings on items that are bought and shipped together, thereby reducing the supply-chain and logistics costs often buried in the price of goods.
- A select group of more than 2,400 retailer and brand partners tailored to create an attractive and distinctive assortment for consumers.
“With this complementary platform and new customers, we see potential synergies in product cost, shipping, fulfillment and integration of technology platforms. Jet can help Walmart and Walmart can help Jet,” said a Walmart spokesperson.
