Walmart is shutting down Jet, a company they acquired for $3bn in 2016
Jet.com’s fate was disclosed as part of a Walmart’s Q1 earnings report, in which the company said it saw growth of less than 10% in its core US market, and said that it would be withdrawing guidance for fiscal 2021.
Yet the news of Jet.com’s discontinuation is in equal parts a surprise if probably expected by those who have been watching its progress. Surprise, because the continued impact of COVID-19 has led to a surge of people shopping online — Walmart itself notes that e-commerce sales were up 74% in the quarter, including store pickup and delivery, ship to home, ship from store and marketplace channels — and so it would seem that Walmart might have wanted to double down on its own online efforts.
