by Vandana Rambaran
Walmart is introducing a new same-day delivery service called Jetblack through its Store No. 8 incubator, which rivals competitor Amazon’s services like Amazon Prime and Prime Now.
Jetblack, which has launched in New York City and will be rolling out to the rest of the country throughout the coming year, requires a $50 a month membership fee, but allows consumers to purchase directly from the retail conglomerate, Jet.com and other rival retailers via text message. The service will offer same-day and next-day delivery at no additional cost.
The new Walmart resource will also send shoppers text messages to remind them of products that they are about to run out of, suggestions the service makes based on artificial intelligence gathered about purchase history, said co-founder and chief executive of Jetblack Jenny Fleiss in an interview with Reuters.
Jetblack, a pricier alternative to its competitor Amazon, which offers Amazon Prime delivery for $12.99 a month, makes shopping suggestions to consumers based on their personal wants and needs via texts.
“Powered by conversational commerce, the future of retail will bring convenience and high-touch personalization to the forefront for consumers everywhere,” Marc Lore, Walmart’s head of e-commerce said in a statement to CNBC about Jetblack.
In the most recent quarter, Walmart’s online sales climbed more than 30 percent and the store anticipates continued financial success, with over 40 percent projected growth for the 2019 fiscal year.
Vandana Rambaran is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow Vandana on Twitter.
