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Walmart’s Jetblack: Managing Luxury Serv...

Gaganpreet Singh, ...

Case

Walmart’s Jetblack: Managing Luxury Service on Conversational Commerce

Gaganpreet Singh; Sanjit K Roy; Kiran Pedada; Laknath jayasinghe

ISB245 | Published January 10, 2021 | 11 pages Case

Collection: Indian School of Business

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Learning Objectives

In 2018, Walmart, the world’s biggest retailer, launched Jetblack, a concierge luxury shopping service that allowed consumers to explore and buy items via text message. It is a classic example of the danger of introducing a relatively luxurious brand into the portfolio of a non-luxury brand family. Jetblack’s service combined artificial intelligence (AI) and the customized attention of trained experts to identify the most appropriate products for its customers. Following the launch of Jetblack, customer enrollments grew and both the frequency and breadth of member shopping increased. Its initial customers also stated that texting was their favorite aspect of the service. However, Jetblack’s inability to scale its business operations proved to be a major challenge, with dire financial implications. By 2019, Jetblack was losing around USD 15,000 per customer annually. On February 21, 2020, Walmart announced that it was shutting down its exclusive concierge shopping startup, Jetblack, due to limited end user customer enrollments and inadequate investments.

By working through the case and assignment questions, students will ; comprehend the concept of conversational commerce; understand customer adoption of and resistance to conversational commerce; learn updated value typology linked with conversational commerce; understand the concept of luxury service; analyze the positioning of luxury services; learn brand strategy for luxury services