Selling on Jet.com

Jet was founded in April 2014 by Marc Lore, and was launched online in July 2015. Its objective was to create a marketplace where consumers could enjoy low-priced items and discounts from bulk buying, and save money on shipping fees.

Jet.com may be a newer e-commerce marketplace, but it has successfully made its way into the top online retailers list in the US. In fact, in its first year, Jet.com was able to scale up 12 million different products and carried out $1 billion in gross merchandise value. In addition, Walmart acquired Jet.com for a whopping $3.3 billion in 2016 – which is by far the most expensive US e-commerce acquisition of all time. With Walmart’s decision to acquire Jet.com for that enormous amount, it’s crystal clear how serious they are about competing with Amazon.com.

Jet offers a wide variety of products like household goods, groceries, electronics, furniture, healthcare, beauty and more. Consumers enjoy free shipping with a $35 minimum order, two-day delivery without paying a membership fee, free returns, as well as the easiest shopping experience and 24/7 customer support.

Jet continues to grow, as 400,000 new shoppers are added to its user base monthly, while an average of 25,000 items are sold daily. Moreover, its network has grown to about 2,400 retailers and brand partners.

Signing up on Jet.com consists of two simple steps. The first step asks you basic information like name, email, contact number, and business information such as legal business name, address, Tax ID and business structure.

In the second step, you will just have to choose which seller type you are, and answer a few questions about your company such as annual revenue, SKUs in catalog, merchandise category, business e-commerce website, marketplaces you’ve joined, inventory, which carriers you use, and the like.

After filling out the required information, click submit and your application will be reviewed by the Jet Retail Partners Team in 4-6 weeks. If you get accepted, you’ll receive an email to set up your Jet account.

• Authorized reseller of approved Jet products.
• Able to fulfill orders from fulfillment locations within the contiguous 48 United States.
• Have a valid, 9-digit United States Business Tax Identification Number. (Note that sole proprietors can provide their SSN in lieu of a tax ID.)
• Capable of fulfilling orders to Jet members within 5 business days of purchase.
• While it is not a requirement for selling on Jet, previous success on other e-commerce platforms is a plus!

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Now that you’re on board, note that there’s more to do before you can take off. For instance, you will have to build or pay a third party for a backend admin panel. Thing is, you cannot just directly upload your products to the marketplace.

So, if you’re a skilled developer, integrating directly with Jet’s API won’t be a problem, but for retailers who aren’t, this may cause a little trouble. Hence, we’ve listed some third-party solutions for merchants to start selling on Jet and keep the troubles and inconvenience at bay.

1. Zentail – A powerful tool that helps sync catalog and inventory data, maintain competitive pricing, provide analytics and ship products. Zentail is ideal for marketplace sellers who do their own fulfilment or use FBA. Moreover, Zentail can give you assistance on receiving email approval from Jet. The guys behind Zentail are Jet’s top sellers themselves, and their experience enabled them to create a solution for Jet’s backend pain points.

2. GeekSeller – Yet another tool that offers product management, reporting tools, and inventory and order management. GeekSeller was founded in 2015 and accommodates over 4000 sellers and processes thousands of transactions each day. Cost is 1% of your Jet sales, so you will only start paying when you start selling.

3. CedCommerce – CedCommerce offers extensions for 12+ e-commerce platforms like Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, Volusion and Prestashop, etc. Over 500+ merchants use CedCommerce. Price depends on which platform you choose – for Shopify, it’s $299/year, for Magento, it’s $399 per month. To know more about CedCommerce, click here.

4. Slick Central – Slick Central offers product listing & order management that has advanced features such as bulk CSV Import and third-party fulfilment integration support (FBA & Shipstation). It has 4 flexible plans starting at $29 per month up to $499 per month.

5. Jet Connector – This is a Shopify app to integrate your shop with Jet’s marketplace. Jet Connector updates inventory, orders, and fulfillments in real time across Jet and Shopify. Orders placed on Jet.com appear in your Shopify orders within minutes of being created. This means you can visit just one place to check on your orders. You won’t miss a sale. Pay as low as $40/month or $400/year for the integration service.

The biggest drawbacks to selling on Jet is the fact that you’ll have wait 4-6 weeks to get your application reviewed, and if you successfully get on board, you will have to build or use a third-party backend admin panel to get started.

Is the wait time + effort even worth it? Well, seeing Jet’s performance over the past year, I see a strong opportunity for retailers to boost their online sales with Jet’s marketplace. I guess investing your time and money on Jet can go a long way if you just put your mind to it.

Now it’s your turn to share – what is your rating for Jet.com.