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Walmart is in talks to buy online retailer Jet.com, according to a report on Thursday by The Wall Street Journal.
Jet.com, which launched its e-commerce web site in July 2015, was co-founded by Marc Lore, who serves as its chairman and CEO. Lore is an e-commerce veteran, having sold his previous online retailing venture, Quidsi Inc. (the parent company of Diapers.com, Soap.com and BeautyBar.com) to Amazon in 2010.
Jet.com has a unique approach to pricing. Products on the site start with what the company says is an everyday low price, but once a consumer adds an item to their shopping cart, they can get special deals on other items (marked with a tag icon) that can be packed and shipped from the same facility. “It costs us less to ship multiple items together,” the company’s web site explains, “so when you add items with the tag to your cart, you pay less.”
The Wall Street Journal article estimated that Jet.com could be worth as much as $3 billion.
Walmart has been investing heavily in its e-commerce business, and has sought to leverage its bricks-and-mortar stores and its extensive network of distribution centers to compete with Amazon.com and other online retailers.
