Jet.com drops $50 membership fee, changes business model

When it launched in July, Jet said its membership fee, akin to Costco or Sam’s Club, would serve as a major revenue stream to help keep its prices low and differentiate it from other competitors. Now, Jet will have to make money just like every other e-commerce website on the Internet: By profiting off the small margins off the things it sells.

Under its old model, Jet expected to churn out $20 billion in profit by 2020 with 15 million people paying the $50 yearly fee. The company, which is venture backed with $220 million in funding, said it still expects to make money in the next five years by simply charging more.

Liza Landsman, Jet’s Chief Customer Officer told TechCrunch, the company was taking the commission paid to them from retailers and giving them back to its members in a form of deep discounts. Moving forward, the prices will rise to make up for the loss in membership fees and Jet is keeping a “larger portion of that commission.”

To be clear, Jet never made money from the fees since it offered new users a three-month free trial — it’s only been in existence since July 21.

Jet is also doubling down on its “Smart Cart” option, where it encourages customers to buy more so they save more. In return, the prices come down because items can be shipped together with the savings highlighted on the side of the site triggering people to buy more.

“With the average number of units per order twice what we expected, Smart Carts have been the rule, not the exception. Our customers are taking every advantage of our dynamic pricing engine to place orders that can be fulfilled at a lower cost — and to have those efficiencies shared with them as savings,” Jet CEO Marc Lore wrote in a blog post.

Yoram Wurmser, a retail analyst at eMarketer told Digiday that the pivot isn’t bad because it appears the Smart Cart option “gives them enough of an advantage to run on.”

“It’s still really early and they’re growing quickly,” he said, adding Jet has had a “significant impact” within the sector. “They can run for a long time and it will take a while for the model to see if it works or if it doesn’t, but so far they’re successful.”