Jetblack is just one of numerous initiatives that contribute to Walmart’s deep body of knowledge about what is/isn’t working for their customers. Walmart has become a very sophisticated and capable retail innovator and while it’s impossible to know exactly how the Jetblack experience will inform future decisions, it’s safe to say that Walmart learned a lot. If there’s one thing Walmart has become especially capable at it’s innovation, testing, launching and discontinuing initiatives that don’t work.

It is great that Walmart experimented with Jetblack and that it tried sometime new. I am sure there are many learnings it gleaned from the venture. I take two things away from it. First, in a market like NYC which is already saturated by choice, it is hard to scale this kind of service – especially among consumers who probably already subscribe to Amazon Prime and other subscription offerings. Second, while conversational commerce has a role to play, that role might not be best suited to more discretionary spend on impulse purchases. I think the volumes are too low as people are also happy to use other methods for purchasing – like surfing online and looking in stores where they can more easily see and appreciate products.

Walmart learned that this technology is not yet ready for prime time. There is not enough information to know the specifics of what they learned but hopefully it will inform whatever direction and tools they try next. Conversation is a challenging hurdle, which I have recognized as I watch friends with accents try to use Siri or navigation systems.

I guess there’s a two part answer here.

1. Conversational commerce is going to be tough for any company that will likely be promoting its own products. So just as it’s hard to think of Alexa recommending something Amazon does not sell (or one of those “Amazon’s Choice” products) it’s hard to believe Jetblack did not have a bias.
2. Walmart is slowly working its way into a more upscale market, but I don’t think people that can afford $50/month are going to use it on a personal Walmart shopper. There’s something oxymoronic about that.

I don’t exactly understand why Walmart was losing so much money each year per customer. That’s hard to do with software unless it was allocated costs. Perhaps it will become clear later.

I think there are bits and pieces that Walmart took from experimenting with this app that may be applied to future retail ventures. I think the main lesson learned is that they can do the next iteration better themselves, as they learned with the rest of the companies they purchased over the past few years.

For many reasons, this was such an odd approach to retail that its demise is no surprise. It also portends little insight about conversational commerce which this kinda-sorta was in an unusual way. If there’s any lesson to learn it’s this: solve customer needs or cautiously uncover their unexpressed desires but avoid technology for technology’s sake and un-vetted concepts at all costs.

There are lessons to be learned from all experiences, and Walmart’s Jetblack initiative is no exception. Walmart has made significant strides with its digital portfolio via acquisitions, and they have now either acquired or developed its in-house digital capabilities. Walmart has also demonstrated that they are not unwilling to fail and drive new innovations and services.

Jetblack was an ambitious plan, but in a market such as NYC there is an overabundance of choice and Prime along with other competitive shipping solutions are major obstacles. This certainly will not deter Walmart, as we should expect Walmart to reimagine what conversational commerce could be.

I suppose we will have to wait and see if Walmart learned anything from this doomed-from-the-start experiment. Upscale customers? at Walmart? Spending $600 a year for texting capabilities and delivery? Where exactly is the differentiated value, and who exactly are all these upscale Walmart shoppers? I hope they learned a heck of a lot for their $15,000 investment per customer…

Biggest lesson: that Walmart doesn’t have “upscale” customers? Or perhaps that their customer base just doesn’t shop like that at all (they still predominantly have a physical shopper)? In either case, to me, ALL tests are valuable. Now Walmart knows; welp, that didn’t work. So well played, Bentonville — on to the next play.

An innovation lab in search of an “exploration,” funded by resources almost every other startup has to bootstrap to achieve, utilized on a project to gain insights into how rich people use conversational commerce. Common sense would dictate that such an “exploration” should surely explore the masses of Walmart customers rather than the proclivities of the rich. There are plenty of startups working with very little capital to solve real problems. Well-funded retailer innovation labs quickly become well-funded projects in search of a real-world reason for being. This was a misguided use of funds. If Walmart were a startup the Jetblack “exploration” would have never been funded by investors.

Part of the story here is Walmart’s willingness to try new things, and pull back when an effort fails. The more they learn, the less time they’ll spend on ideas that are ultimately fruitless.

Look, the digital space is all about failing fast and often. What Jetblack teaches all of us — including Walmart — is that sometimes you shouldn’t stay at the party so long, especially when you are driving profits into the ground. That said, Walmart has deep pockets and the fact that the market for what Jetblack offered doesn’t exist today doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth the investment. We forget that the only way most of us learn is the hard way, through our mistakes. So the real lessons here are: don’t let failure be the enemy of success, don’t stop being bold, learn when it’s time to cut and run, and remember, what didn’t work today may work just fine tomorrow, so nothing is necessarily a bad idea forever.

Walmart needs to lead the business in finding how a retailer’s physical presence can be made stronger — and that physical presence makes for strong online sales as well.

The Jetblack failure is yet one more indicator (along with very weak continuing Wayfair numbers) that there is not a strong economic model for solely online stores nor for over-hyped instant delivery (to the very rich).

So in Walmart’s recipe for growth, online is merely a single spice. How much of that spice and of what flavor should it be?

If you look on Twitter you can see that among the upscale customers that used this Walmart service was Jennifer Hyman, CEO of Rent the Runway. She tweeted that Jetblack provided amazing value and service for her as a new parent in helping her to juggle her personal and work responsibilities on a daily basis. While recognizing the service targeted the 1% luxury market, she rightfully pointed out that if you’re going to target this demographic, you’re likely to find success in a city like New York. So what can Walmart learn from this besides the fact that there is a 1% luxury market in NY (which granted they didn’t need this experiment to learn that)? For one, running such a service must create exorbitant costs to be losing $15k per customer per year. That sounds quite difficult to do for what is essentially a software-based service, so I have to assume the logistics of delivering any random product a customer requests within the same day meant extreme difficulty in managing inventory and having enough… Read more »

If retailers want to gain/maintain any momentum then they have to try a variety of approaches and methods. As long as there is applicable learning involved with a reasonable “cost per lesson” this was a good initiative. Retailers have to “test and learn,” which of course is not the same as “test and churn,” whether it’s new products, or new experiences. What doesn’t work is standing still.

Kudos to Walmart for experimenting with JetBlack, among many other initiatives.

Most of the $15,000 loss per client is more likely in the set-up of the program rather than the execution. Furthermore, the loss on their financial statement is really an investment in understanding a new marketplace and technology.

Successful companies like Walmart are constantly moving/investing their pieces in the puzzle for efficiency and new programs.