Walmart Embraces Amazon MCF: A New Era of Cross-Platform Fulfillment for eCommerce
Walmart Embraces Amazon MCF: A New Era of Cross-Platform Fulfillment for eCommerce
Sell on Jet com for not just a chance of attracting 1.57 million unique visitors, but selling to customers who spend an average of $1500 per month as per a report from Walmart. Henceforth, selling on Jet com implies sellers must become Jet com Partners. Find out how to sell your products on Jet.com to expand your profits.
Jet.com is not functional anymore. If you want to continue selling your Jet.com inventories, we can assist you in shifting them to Walmart till July 16, 2020. This is not an automatic process, sellers will have to place a request through the Walmart Seller Center or Contact us. If you are a new seller wishing to sell on Jet.com, don’t be disheartened, we can help you sell on Walmart.com instead.
With attention to the fact that Walmart bought Jet.com in August 2016, the process of selling is somewhat similar to that of Walmart. Thus, Walmart Sellers might already know half of how to sell on Jet com.
Jet declares its intentions in regards to its selection of Partners (Third Party Sellers) as:
“Our mission is to showcase a thoughtfully curated selection of brands for our urban customer, so we’re looking for partners who share in our passion and uphold our standards for quality products and experiences.”
Moreover, answer to the question “How to sell on Jet com?” is you need to become Jet com Partner. A point to remember is, Jet refers to its sellers as Partners.
To understand the process, you can explore these frequently asked questions:
- What is Jet com and How does it work?
- Does jet have third party sellers? What are Jet com Partners?
- Who can sell on Jet com?
- Why should you sell on Jet com?
- What are the Pre-requisites to selling on Jet com?
- How can you start selling on Jet com?
- What selling on Jet com involves?
- Where is the Jet Runway?
- What can you do with the Jet Rules Engine?
- How to use Jet Insights?
- Feasible Integrations of Jet With other Platforms
What is Jet com and How does it work?
Jet com is an Online Marketplace in the USA with an estimated revenue of $1 billion and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Walmart USA.
Markedly, Jet’s Mission and Vision, talks about Trust, Transparency, and Fairness for Customers and Sellers, all alike.
Another critical point in their mission is to keep the costs competitively low.
Consequently, make sure the customers get the same product at the lowest cost on Jet com than anywhere else.
Although, jet com started as a members-only platform up until 2015. Later, intending to sell more and meet the demands of a high number of sellers, it turned into a Commission base model.
How does Jet com work?
Jet com of USA has several Unique Selling points, with attention to which Jet com becomes a promising and favorable platform to sell your products on the Jet.
For the sake of understanding, how to sell on Jet com, sellers need to take a glimpse on how jet com works.
Any Sellers, or as Jet refers to them as Partners can apply to sell on their platform once approved.
Sellers are required to pay a fee which is on a commission basis after every sale.
Jet aims to keep the costs lowest with its “Real pricing algorithm.”
The most compelling evidence of Jet’s intention to maximize profits for sellers and buyers alike is this algorithm.
Jet matches the sellers and buyers, such that the overall costs can remain marginally the lowest.
With the mission in mind, Jet encourages a strategy where offers build the basket of buyers.
For instance, if a customer decides to buy three items and chooses not to select a refund option, he will get the product at a lower cost.
Additionally, Customers choose a Product, and Jet com selects the best fitting seller based on customer’s choices to ensure the lowest cost possible.
Thereby, sellers can control their chances by optimizing the offers for basket choice and choosing shipping costs accordingly.
Jet also allows sellers to communicate with customers via email and create a customer base and personas easily.
Does Jet have third party sellers? What are Jet com Partners?
Although Jet com started as a members-only platform, it changed its model to commission base, one with an open no required invitation type of platform in 2015.
The sellers who apply to Jet com to list their products are actually the third-party sellers.
Jet prefers to use the term partner for sellers. Whatever amount the customers pay for the products listed by partners, Jet com charges a small commission fee and transfers the rest to the partners.
There are nearly 2500 USA sellers on the Jet platform.
Who can Sell on Jet com?
As long as sellers can fulfill the product in 48 states of the USA where Jet is currently operating and has the right to do so legally, they can partner with Jet. Hence, sellers with US business Tax IDs.
There is no requirement for the business to be headquartered on US land per se, as long as they can meet the above criteria.
No other requirements are laid down by Jet com, thus opening the platform for anyone to try.
Why should you sell your products on Jet.com?
An excellent question, why should you consider Jet com as a platform where you can invest your resources in?
Jet com has a mission that works towards creating the most profit for not just customers but sellers as well.
Significant benefits you can enjoy on partnering with Jet com are:
Low Commission Base model
Jet charges only a small commission ranging from 6-20%. The charge varies category-wise. Sellers pay only after they sell something.
Basket size
Sellers are much more in control of their profits and the products per basket they can value. To put it in other words, Jet com Partners can define the minimum cost of a basket.
Access to Customers
Unlike Walmart or Amazon, Jet lets the partners contact customers through emails and create a targetted email list, thus allowing free brand image building.
Control over Competition
Jet com Partners can control competition with several unique features that only Jet com offers. Sellers themselves manage their chances of getting matched with the right customers by unlimited numbers of offers that they can create.
Brand Score Card
Jet com partners get to see their brand image expressly through a Score Card reflecting upon performance for 30 days and 90 days. Sellers can watch, learn, and thereupon improve their strategies based on these detailed analyses.
Competitively Low cost
Contrary to what sounds like a negative feature, this actually has a positive effect. Sellers can sell more on Jet com in comparison to other marketplaces since the low cost is a high motivating factor for customers.
Jet Rules Engine
While selling on Jet com, sellers get to use Jet Rules engine a proprietary algorithm. It enables them to get a hold on areas where they want their products to sell on the jet. They can boost the sales of products in a specific region and decrease the transactions in the other regions.
What are the Pre-requisites to selling on Jet com?
Jet com is open for any seller to apply and once receiving approval on their catalog, these sellers can start selling go live. There are only a few requisites that sellers need to have:
- Functional Bank account
- Valid U.S. Business Tax ID Number (for sole proprietor – valid U.S. SSN)
- Sell Branded products (and leave Prohibited Products)
- Uphold Jet.com’s ‘Excellent Fulfillment & Delivery Performance’ standards
How can you sell on Jet com?
As discussed several times, to become Jet com Partners, sellers need to apply to the Partner portal of Jet com and register themselves.
Steps to Sell on Jet com
First Step: Apply to become Jet com Partner
Second Step: Choose Integration Partner
Third Step: Start Selling on Jet com
1. Apply to become Jet com Partner
Sellers are required to go through the registration process and fill out their details on the jet com Partner portal. Form unfolds in three steps:
- Go through Selling guidelines thoroughly. It is essential to realize that Jet com, like any other marketplace, has its unique guidelines and specifications. Before you register, make sure you understand whether or not Jet is a suitable platform for you.
- Fill the form with essential pieces of information such as your Name, Contact details, Business name, address, Tax Id, and Business model.
- On the next stage, fill out the details such as the type of seller. Additionally, supply a confirmation of whether or not you are an authorized seller. Provide the range for your Annual Revenue online, SKUs from the catalog that matches your product and categories and details regarding fulfillment.
- Submit your application and wait. You will get a notice about approval within a specific time frame. Apparently, it is uncertain as to how much time the support will take, but you may get a response between 4 weeks to a few months.
2. Choose Integration Partner
Since Jet com does not have a portal where you can upload your products from, you will be required to consult a Third-Party Integration provider.
Once you get approval, Jet com will provide an API key to you. Using this, you can choose either of the following methods:
a. Direct Upload
In case you are a developer or have knowledge sufficient to develop an API, you can select this method.
You can develop APIs to integrate with Jet com and maintain listings and upload products on Jet.com, meanwhile supporting a multi-channel business model.
Else, you can hire an expert and let them manage your listings and integration of stores.
b. Third-Party Solution Provider
Conversely, you can go for a Solution Provider and seek consultation with the process.
3. Start Selling on Jet com
Selling on Jet com is a unique process, and sellers need to understand it better.
What happens at the core of the selling cycle is that Jet buys products from the sellers.
To put it in another way, sellers do not sell directly to the customers but to the Jet itself. Then Jet sells the product to the Customers.
The following sections cover Tips to sell better on Jet.
What selling on Jet com involves?: Products on Jet.com
Unique Product Listing
Jet has a unique way of listing Products. They prefer a product-oriented strategy where every item has only one listing.
In fact, customers do not see the sellers. Instead, they just know the product and Jet com then matches the customers to the sellers based on the basket.
Basically, the seller is assigned the order at the time of check out.
Although every retailer has to submit complete details about the product, it is not necessary that the final listing will bear the information they provided.
Jet takes it upon itself to use data provided by each seller and choose the best of it to display.
Thus, in other words, one listing can have a title from one, a description from another seller and specs from yet another seller.
Sellers need to supply the correct information to list their products on Jet.com successfully by qualifying the Jet’s SKU matching algorithm.
Details you must offer, include:
- Merchant SKU ID
- Unique ID
- Multipack Quantity
- Product Title
- Description
- Image
- Product Price
- Jet Category
- Brand
- Item Price
- Inventory
- Jet Brows
- Node ID
- Dimension
- Weight
It is essential to realize that Jet uses a comprehensive and sophisticated algorithm. They do so, to check every piece of information you supply and does its best to match it to an existing Listing or creates anew one if the need arises.
Jet suggests sellers provide accurate and correct data and not provide fake data or absurd data in any case.
If you do not have some information, leave the field empty rather than supplying fake data.
Source: JetSKU Review by Jet com
Sellers are required to provide unique identifiers of each product on their Listing. Jet com uses these Identifiers to match the Product with existing SKUs.
Now, sellers have the option to price the product during the listing. This cost is a generic cost for the respective SKU. The other option is to assign a value at the fulfillment node.
Whether or not the seller can sell a product in multi-pack quantity is upon Jet.
Once Jet com completes the review and the appropriate mapping, the product moves to the staging. Post this, the item goes live, and you get a chance of winning an order.
Product Definitions
1. Not Eligible for sale:
a. Archived: This is closest to what a seller can use for deleting an SKU. Jet com does not allow sellers to delete SKU. They can set archive status to deactivate a listing.
b. Excluded Category or Brand: When a product is rejected by Jet com due to any factor. For instance, a product that falls under the prohibited product category. c. Unauthorized: This status can occur for several reasons. Such as sellers’ inability to meet Performance Standard or Violation of a brand’s policy or copyright, etc.
2. Attribute Data Required:
In case the specs filled by the seller is insufficient, mapping the said item will not happen appropriately. Thereby, make sure you provide sufficient details regarding all attributes.
3. Eligible for Sale:
a. Missing Listing Data: In the case of some missing data, Jet com renders the product suitable but the listing remains unfinished. If the seller does not have information about the missing field, they can wait for some other seller to fill the information.
4. Processing:
Status for the period during which Jet com reviews the listings and offers.
5. Available for Sale:
For a well-updated inventory, the product is available for sale.
Product Pricing
Owing to the mission of Jet, which wants maximum profit for sellers and customers and lowest prices, the Pricing algorithm is a highly intelligent one.
In order to keep the cost lowest, this algorithm considers the total cost of a customer’s basket as just one factor. Other factors include:
- Customer’s Zipcode
- Different Retailers whose policies best fist the customer’s Basket Value.
- Location of the closest warehouse
And then a combination of all these factors calculate the lowest possible price of the basket.
Types of Prices
- Item Price: The price seller provides at the time of listing
- .Shipping Price: Shipping Price that the seller offers during the listing. Jet com has a shipping cost of $5.99 for all orders below $49. Jet does not pay this to the seller. In case the seller has provided a shipping cost on the partner portal, then they will get that amount from Jet.
- Retailer Price: Item Price+ Shipping Cost.
- Settlement Price: Retailer Price- Commission charged by Jet.
- Competitive Price: Price that Jet Customers will see.
- Basket-Level Price: Price after applying discounts on a Basket (Post Pricing Controls).
For a given product the Jet Partners get Settlement Price rather than Retailer Price.
Check out what Jet com considers good and bad orders with which sellers can maintain profit and margin:
Example of a Good Order:
The Customer who lives nearby, orders a high number of items that can all be packed in one box and pays by electronic means. The customer does not contact or refund any order.
Example of a Bad Order:
The customer lives far away, orders a small quantity of product which costs just above the free shipping limit, and pays with a credit card that charges you extra and then returns the item.
Pricing Controls
Source: JetCommission
Jet com has a commission-based model where Jet charges a commission somewhere between 6-20% depending upon categories. Jet charges the commission in exchange for providing a platform for sellers to list and sell their products.
Calculations:
Commission Charged:
Applicable Commission Rate x Retailer Price + Dollar Based Adjustments.
Where,
- Retailer Price= Item Price+ Shipping Price;
- Applicable Commission Rate= Base Commission Rate + Commission Rate Adjustments.
Hence,
Applicable Commission= Base commission + Total Commission Adjustments.
Terms involved:
1. Base Commission
The commission rate defined in the Product Category list by Jet com.
2. Commission Rate Adjustments:
This gives sellers control over the total commission charged on a particular category. The Jet Rules Engine supplies this rate. Jet com Partner can increase or decrease the commission rate depending upon factors such as overall dollar amount or basket value. Shipping cost also affects this rate.
3. Dollar Based Adjustments:
Another critical point is, the partner can add a fixed dollar amount to the commission within the limits of the Jet Rules Engine.
4.Average Applicable Commission:
An average amount of commission that Jet com Partner pays within a given period.
Settlement And Reporting
At the end of every week, Jet settles the amount it owes to the partner and transfers it to the registered account. The method of transfer is Automated Clearinghouse, which is a relatively common electronic transfer across the US.
“Jet considers the time period between 12:00 AM UTC on Saturday to 11:59 PM UTC on the following Friday as a week.”
Sellers might owe an amount to Jet as a part of the commission, monetary incentives as per Jet Rules Engine, refunds and return shipping costs, etc.
In this case, sellers must pay the amount they owe to avoid the total amount of debt increase beyond what Jet owes to the seller.
If such a thing happens, Jet will not pay the sellers for further sales until the difference becomes zero.
In case, Jet has to refund a customer; the sellers will have to bear the refund cost eventually.
Jet will debit the partner with a refund and any shipping cost involved.
Nonetheless, Jet will return the commission it charged initially.
Orders
Source: JetAfter the seller acknowledges the Order, the respective customer can view the following information on their account:
- Order Number
- Payment Method
- Order Total
- Order Date
- Estimated Delivery Date
- Delivery Location
- Fulfilling Retail Partner
- Total Saving
- Total Bonus Saving
Order Cancellations
Sellers can cancel the orders at two points in the Order Process.
1. During Acknowledgement
If the ordered item is not available or is not working or the shipping is not feasible, you can provide a valid reason and cancel the order.
2. During Shipping
If you are unable to ship items that you have already acknowledged, then cancel them at this stage. Just make sure you provide accurate information regarding all units of order that you are canceling.
Shipping
Jet partners are responsible for shipping the Jet products and maintain performance standards related to fulfillment.
1. Shipping Rates
Sellers need to set Shipping Prices carefully. After all, Retailer Price contains the shipping cost.
These costs determine not only this but also commission adjustments as per Jet Rules Engine.
Shipping costs can be of the following types:
- Individual Fulfillment Cost
- Price Banded
- Per Item
- Per Pound
Additionally, a base charge per order on all methods.
2. Shipping Methods Supported
- Standard
- Expedited
- Second Day
- Next-Day
- Freight
Returns
Jet expects Partners to use their current Return Policy for selling on Jet com as well. To emphasize the fact that Jet commits to a comfortable experience for sellers as well as customers alike, it ensures a smooth return process.
Jet only supports Returns, Replacements, and Refunds. It does not allow an exchange.
If the refund occurs due to a failure of meeting the expectations on the sellers’ part, Jet charges them for return shipping.
Jet com Partner Performance expectations and Standards
Just like its competitors, Jet com also has an elaborate set of standards which lay guidelines for Performance Standards and Expectations.
1. Comply with Partner Agreement
Partners are legally bound to abide by the Partner Agreement, which they accepted during account creation.
2. Working on the Warning and Probation to avoid Suspension
Sellers must meet all standards compulsorily. If a partner fails to do so, they will be set to 30 days Probation with a notice to improve performance. Furthermore, if a seller fails even after that, the Partners may get suspension ultimately.
3. Order Rate Defects
The overall score for Order Rate Defects should remain below 2% at all times. If the limit reaches as high as 6%, Jest suspends the partner.
4. Rejection Rates
Sellers must keep the rejection of orders below 1% at all times. Rejecting too many requests sets a lousy record for the seller.
5. Late Deliveries
The first thing to remember is that Jet com is a marketplace with very high expectations from sellers when it comes to delivering on time. Sellers are required to keep the delivery defects below 1.3%.
6. Return and Refunds Defect Rate
The percent count of orders where the seller has to refund or process returns of items due to an issue generated from their side should be less 1%.
7. Order Acknowledgement Rate
Markedly, Jet wants the partners to accept and acknowledge the order within 15 minutes for an optimum performance index. This rate should be higher than 99%. And Partners should accept the orders within the 2 hours for every order or Jet will reassign the order to someone else.
In other words, the rate of accepting orders within 2 hours should be 100%.
8. Order Processing Time
Since Jet wants the delivery time to be shortest, they expect sellers to process the order within one business day more than 99.3 % of the time.
9. Valid Tracking Rate
Jet com requires all sellers to provide shipments 100% of the time.
10. Order Shipped on Time Rate
Once again, for more than 99.8% of orders, sellers must ship in time to maintain in time delivery.
What can you do with the Jet Runway?
Jet Runway is nothing but the Jet Partner Portal. It is a basic account that sellers get after approval to sell on Jet com.
When Partners first access their Jet Runway, they have to go through a test mode and then live mode. Once the listing goes live, the test mode no longer appears in the account.
Source: JetFrom this portal sellers can access and modify changes about:
- Settlement
- Fulfillment
- Orders
- Products
- Account
Sellers can also go through Jet Rules Engine and View Jet Insights from this portal.
One key point to remember is that this portal has no means to help sellers directly upload the products. Sellers must update listings using the Integration API.
What is Jet Rules Engine?
Jet Rules Engine is the platform using which Sellers can control the Profits and Margin. The rules fixed here can help sellers in beating the competition and winning Orders.
Here sellers can define:
Shipping Distance Rules:
Adjust shipping costs based on the distance of the customer. Sellers can determine lower costs for closer nodes and ensure the lowest possible Retailer Price. Consequently, it increases their chances of winning more and more orders.
Basket Building Rules:
Jet Partners get an opportunity to provide exciting offers independent of other sellers and marketplace. Using Basket Building, sellers can encourage customers to increase the size of the basket and thus spend more.
Waive Return Rules:
As per this rule, if a customer decides to forgo the right to refund and return, they get incentives such as lower cost or free shipping.
How to use Jet Insights?
Source: JetJet offers sellers some great insights to improve their business. Such as sellers can access Market prices and accordingly adjust their own Prices. Additionally, Checkout the Noncompetitive SKUs which have exceeded the competitively low cost and hence have been delisted. By the same token, Insights offer information regarding SKUs that happen to the top sellers on Jet.
Feasible Integrations of Jet With other Platforms
Jet-Shopify Integration:
Jet Shopify Integration helps sellers in their Products, Orders, and Inventory Management in just one click. It provides Real-time Syncing. Shopify store sellers can manage their product’s price on jet.com with Custom Pricing and offer competitive rates. It gets you started with Multi Sales Channels.
Jet BigCommerce Integration:
Jet BigCommerce Integration App is a complete solution that integrates your online store with Jet.com. The App comes as an opportunity to help all those willing to sell on Jet.com. This integration app provides online sellers hassle-free management of stores, enriches seller experience, and introduces you to multi sales channels.
Jet Magento Integration:
Jet Magento Integration, enables synchronization of inventory management, price & other product details and manages orders, returns, etc. between Magento store and Jet marketplace. The smooth harmonization happens with the help of Jet.com REST API.
Jet Prestashop Integration:
Jet-PrestaShop Integration enables the sellers to list and sell their Prestashop store products on the Jet marketplace. It offers complete synchronization of inventory management, pricing, order management, shipment management, etc. from your Prestashop store. Jet Integration provides the convenience of overall management with the help of Jet.com API integration.
