Walmart’s personal shopping service JetBlack is drawing outside interest from firms which could result in the company partnering with outside parties or selling the business altogether.
The service which was launched 2 years ago is only functional in New York and has been spearheaded by Rent the Runway co-founder Jenny Fleiss.
JetBlack is a service that offers its members, for a fee of US $ 50 per month, a personal shopping service and the ability to order anything they want, on demand via text.
There are also other perks included, such as gift wrapping. And JetBlack’s personal shoppers will make gift recommendations.
Jet.com founder Mark Lore, who was working along with Fleiss, has said that the service was seeing an average expenditure US $ 1,500 per month, and despite not having any plans to scale the business currently, Walmart could one day bring this same text-to-order technology to the entire business.
The talks regarding the involvement of other parties come amidst Walmart dealing with its own backlash internally, with some workers on Walmart’s stores team reportedly upset over Lore’s money-losing online efforts.
Vox reported earlier this year that Walmart was looking at selling some of the start-ups it acquired over the years, including women’s apparel brand ModCloth.
Walmart shares were up less than 1 per cent on Thursday afternoon, having climbed more than 27 per cent this year.
