Walmart to Discontinue Jetblack Service

Big-box retailer Walmart will be discontinuing its personal shopping service Jetblack later this month.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Walmart will discontinue the service on February 21st after it ended talks about an investment or spinoff.

The Jetblack service has reportedly attracted few customers and is not profitable. It was losing around $15,000 per member annually as of summer 2019, according to the newspaper.

Jetblack launched in New York City in May 2018 and catered to high-end customers. It was priced at $50 a month when it rolled out.

The Wall Street Journal said the company ended talks to spin off the business and will now restructure it. Walmart had conversations with potential investors, including Microsoft, United Parcel Service and venture capital firms, according to the WSJ report.

The head of Walmart’s technology incubator Store No. 8, Scott Eckert, wrote in a post on the company’s coporate website that Jetblack has graduated from its tech incubator and will become part of Walmart’s customer organization.

“We’ve learned a lot through Jet black, including how customers respond to the ability of ordering by text as well as the type of items they purchase through texting,” Eckert said in the post. “We’re eager to apply these learnings from Jet black and leverage its core capabilities within Walmart.”

There was no detail provided on what that might look like.

Jetblack notified customers about the end of the service in text messages and emails on Thursday.

Roughly 300 Jetblack employees will lose their jobs and 58 others will become a conversational commerce team for Walmart, and remain working in New York, said company spokesman Ravi Jariwala.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and have not been compensated for this article.