The world’s largest retailer is using Jetblack, a money-losing personal-shopping service, to develop artificial intelligence to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon.
Jetblack is a personal-shopping company targeted at mothers launched last summer by a surprising newcomer to the field: Walmart Inc. A few shoppers in New York City pay approximately $600 a year to order anything by text message with the exception of fresh food. All these members were either invited by Walmart or referred by a current member, and need to have doorman to join. Their orders basically go to the headquarters of Jetblack where dozens of agents sit behind a computer screen and start the ordering process and field requests, from reordering diapers to making different suggestions such as high-end cribs, organic snacks and yoga attire.
It’s a labor-intensive operation that loses money. But making money isn’t the goal, at least not right away.
Walmart executives are betting the upstart becomes a powerful weapon in an escalating technological ground war with Amazon.com Inc, as the the two companies battle over shoppers who are making all sorts of purchases online. Walmart is considered to be bigger in sales overall, but still the underdog in online sales, and is currently fighting for a larger presence.
Walmart is competing with Amazon, Walmart is currently the world's biggest retailer by revenue, with $514 billion in annual sales, but e-commerce makes up only a small percentage.
Jetblack is a small piece of Walmart's online investments, but it is one of the biggest gambles Walmart is making to attract wealthy shoppers and burnish its tech credentials.
I chose this specific article because I find very strategic what Walmart is doing, this new investment seems to be successful so far and definitely a competitive project to Amazon. Walmart is known worldwide and its revenue is the largest in the retail field, their new investment is definitely going to make them grow bigger in the online world. This article relates to marketing because of the strategies that Walmart is using to promote their online sales. They are promoting their sales through another company where its members have to either be invited by Walmart or referred by a current member so this gives them more publicity.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-builds-a-secret-weapon-to-battle-amazon-for-retails-future-11553181810
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