With nearly eight months’ experience after taking off, Jet.com’s flight has been eventful. The company has launched, changed its business model, raised hundreds of millions of new dollars, survived its first Christmas, and acquired a home décor merchant, Hayneedle.com.
Slice just completed a comprehensive review of Jet’s first 8 months and summarized the findings in the attached white paper.
Here are the highlights:
- Sales growth has been strong – Between September and December, average monthly growth was 28 percent. Jet February sales were more than 50 percent higher than September.
- Jet's sales still lag its target, Amazon, representing less than one percent of Amazon sales.
- The average Jet.com basket is an impressive $71, higher than competitors Target and Walmart despite a heavy composition of low priced CPG items.
- Jet's big vulnerability is repeat purchase, with its average customer purchasing just 1.5 times between launch and the end of February, compared with 2.2 for Target and 2.1 for Walmart over the same timeframe.
- Jet is differentiating very effectively on fulfillment speed, with ‘click to doorstep’ intervals on par with Amazon, roughly two days quicker than Target and Walmart.
- Jet's marketplace is a significant component of revenue, representing 71 percent of sales in February.
All in all, a respectable first 8 months for a company that started from a revenue base of zero. Does Amazon need to worry? Not yet, but Walmart and Target ought to be looking over their shoulders.