海角大神

For years now,聽听补苍诲听聽have been going head-to-head, chopping their prices and stealing customers back and forth with wild abandon. But now there's a new kid in town, one who just might give these two mega-retailers a run for their money.聽

贰苍迟别谤听, the brainchild of Marc Lore, co-founder and former CEO of Quidsi. Jet aims to beat Amazon and Walmart at the pricing game, and while the startup retailer聽still needs to catch up to its competitors' seemingly never-ending supply of goods, it may聽be winning the price war. When Jet launched last聽month,聽聽on more than 16,000 exactly matched products on Jet, Amazon and Walmart. They found that聽Jet's prices were on average nine percent lower than Amazon's, and six percent lower than Walmart's.

Jet is a club retailer, much like Costco and Walmart's sister store, Sam's Club, which means you can't shop the site unless you fork over the $49.99 yearly membership fee.聽You can sign up for a free, three month trial membership, but shipping is only聽free on orders over $35.

But聽Jet's pricing strategy is deliberate.聽$49.99聽is half the price of Amazon Prime's $99 annual cost, and聽one cent less than the $50聽Walmart is charging for its new聽, a loyalty program that聽gives members free three-day shipping on all online orders. The $35 minimum spending threshold for free shipping mirrors聽what both regular Walmart customers and non-Prime Amazon shoppers are subjected to. And because they don't plan to turn a profit on their merchandise (opting to make their money with subscriptions alone), their competitive prices might just convert Walmart and Amazon shoppers alike to switch loyalties.

So now we have three separate retailers trying very similar things in very different ways. Which one should you order from? Here's our breakdown of the pros and cons of each:

Jet

Pricing & Membership

Membership is $49.99/year, but you can sign up for a free, three-month trial membership. Items are priced on average below what they're going for at places like Amazon and Walmart, because Jet's business model聽doesn't require them to actually make any money off your purchases.

In some cases, the site offers customers things they don't stock themselves, and if you order them, Jet will have to buy them for more at another site and have them shipped directly to you. A Wall Street Journal reporter recently placed a聽$275.55 order with Jet, which ended up costing聽the company $518.46 to fulfill. This means Jet took a loss of $242.91 in order to deliver those items to the reporter.

Shipping & Returns

Two-to-five-day shipping聽is $5.99 for orders under $35, and free for orders over $35. Returns are also free (within 30 days), and if you want to save even more,聽Jet will take a select amount off each item that you waive the聽right to return.

Customer Service

By聽all accounts, Jet has聽outstanding customer service. Early customers received聽, and other reports say that when mistakes are made, they're remedied quickly and efficiently. Jet's relatively small size and need to make a good impression on first-time customers probably accounts for this attention to detail, so it will be interesting to see how their customer service progresses (or regresses) as the company grows in popularity and size.

Selection

This is where Jet falls flat. While their聽inventory of around 10 million items is nothing to sniff at, it pales in comparison to Amazon's estimated 300 million (Amazon does not advertise the exact number of products for sale on its site), and users have noted that while household items like cleaning supplies and toilet paper are in ample supply, their selection of聽things like apparel, sports equipment and fresh produce聽is severely lacking, as is their selection of generic brand products.

Notable Features

If you don't save more than the $49.99 annual fee, you can get the difference refunded. So if you only save $38 during your time as a Jet member, you can request that the $11.99 difference be聽refunded to the card you used to pay for your membership.

Other features unique to Jet are聽the many ways customers can get discounts on the site. You'll get money off for bigger carts, if you use a payment method with lower fees (think debit vs. credit), and, as I mentioned before, if you waive your right to return certain items. You can also earn JetCash on your Jet purchases which can be used to buy things offsite!

Amazon

Pricing & Membership

You don't have to be a member to shop on Amazon, but if you want Prime perks, membership is $99/year. Amazon does have great deals,聽聽lest you waste your money.

Shipping & Returns

Shipping rates on individual items vary based on your location and the vendor, but if you're buying directly from Amazon, orders over $35 receive free, two-day shipping.

Amazon has an entire聽聽where you can check to see if your items are eligible for returns, print return labels and check the status of a recent return. According to this page:聽"You may聽return most new, unopened items sold and fulfilled by Amazon.com within 30 days of delivery for a full refund."

Customer Service

As a frequent Amazon customer, I've found their customer service to be adequate, but not exceptional. When a Prime Pantry order showed up at my house in a soaking wet, disintegrating cardboard box (a box of聽wet Swiffer pads had leaked during transit) missing the toilet paper and dish soap I ordered, I contacted customer service via Amazon's online chat option.

The rep was nice enough, but all she did was apologize and resend the missing items. This was fine, but it would have been nice to get a refund on the Swiffer pads, or聽a small gift card for my troubles. Still, I can't really complain as I got what I ordered and this experience was a billion times better than any I've had with other giant companies,聽.

Selection

As I said before, Amazon is estimated to have about 300 million items in its inventory at any given time,聽and there are very few things that exist in the world that you can't find on the site. It's also easy to browse a certain kind of item if you don't know exactly what you're looking for--searches for "birthday presents for teen boys" and "things moms like" both come up with helpful and relevant suggestions.

Notable Features

Uhh, where to begin? $99/year for Prime membership might seem steep, but you're not just paying for free shipping. Prime membership also comes with shared shipping benefits for up to four household members,聽access to Prime Pantry, Prime Now () Prime Music streaming services, free eBook rentals for Kindle devices, a free (unlimited!) cloud drive and, of course, access to all the amazing movies and TV shows on Prime Video.聽, so check that out for more details.

Walmart

Pricing & Membership

Love them or hate them, you can't deny that Walmart has some seriously good prices on everything from groceries to furniture. Anyone can shop both in-store and online without being a member, but they're聽聽this summer for $50/year that gives online shoppers free, unlimited three-day shipping.

Shipping & Returns

Walmart recently lowered its free shipping threshold from $50 to $35 to compete with Amazon, but orders under $35 ship for $4.97 (for standard four-to-six聽day shipping, although in my experience stuff usually arrives much sooner than that). You can also sign up for the $50/year pilot program for unlimited three-day shipping, or if you live near a Walmart location聽(and if you live in the U.S., chances are high that you do), you can get any online order shipped to the store for free.

According to Walmart.com, "most items can be returned聽within 90 days of receiving them," as long as they're still in their original packaging.

Customer Service

I don't have personal experience with their customer service, but after doing a bit of research it seems they're about as good as you'd expect at solving customer woes--that is, not very good at all. Granted, most聽of the complaints I found were about in-store issues, but聽I found a few one-star ratings on聽聽detailing problems with online purchases. So it聽doesn't look like you're likely to be on the receiving end of any hand-written thank you notes.

Selection

At seven million, Walmart's online inventory is actually a bit smaller than Jet's, but the selection is a so diverse聽you'll never notice. Unlike Jet

Notable Features

Not many. Free shipping and low prices are all that $50/year is going to get you, although having the option for an in-store experience isn't a bad perk.聽In all honesty, the $35 free shipping cap is low enough that I'm not sure $50/year for free shipping is worth it. But only time will tell.

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