The much hyped Amazon rival from Marc Lore, the founder of Diapers.com, is here. Jet.com has launched today, a few hours ahead of schedule.
Jet costs $49 per year to subscribe and offers the “best prices on the Web” by looking across multiple sites and finding the best prices.
Individual retailers can sell directly on Jet.com and it figures out who has the best price automaticallly.
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The service has been in private testing since early this year. As part of a marketing stunt late last year, the company offered shares in the company for people referred to join the site.
Most of the things you’d usually go to Amazon for are available on Jet: furniture, computers, books, etc. As you add more items to your cart, Jet says the savings get bigger and loudly touts how much you’re saving each time.
Each item includes a free return policy, which you can choose to waive on checkout to save even more money if you’re sure you won’t want to just return it. In my brief testing waiving the return option on a $819 TV saved $16.54.
Shipping on the service is free for orders over $35, regardless of how many different companies fulfill the order. Jet company takes care of all customer service regardless of the lace it’s ordered from.
Deliveries at launch take two to three days and there’s no same day option.
The service has 2,200 retailers onboard such as NewEgg, Lenovo, Asus, Harper Collins and more. Jet already shows all the items it’ll have in the future and sells them at a loss to ensure it stocks a wide range of items.
On first impression Jet is very easy to use and offers a clean, consistent design while browsing around the site. It makes the savings over competitors — specifically, Amazon — very clear consistently throughout the buying process.
What’s not clear is if Jet will offer savings large enough to convince users to switch from Amazon’s service, which offers a wider range of products and algorithms that have learned your habits over time.
Jet is only available in the US and you can sign up for the service from today for a free three month trial.
➤ Jet
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