Walmart to Scale Back Jetblack After Investor Talks Fizzle - The Wall Street Journal

Walmart’s Jetblack service in New York City has been an experiment in personal shopping and delivery relying on text messages.

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Sarah Nassauer

Sarah Nassauer
The Wall Street Journal
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Feb. 13, 2020 9:38 am ET

Walmart Inc. is restructuring its Jetblack personal shopping service, as some of the talks it held with potential investors last year have ended, according to people familiar with the situation.

The New York City-based unit, which offers fast product delivery through text message, plans to rebrand and in coming months would cease to be a personal-shopping service, some of these people said. Its technology could be moved within Walmart, they said.

Last year, Walmart worked to spin off the unprofitable unit, which had less than a thousand customers as of last year. The retailer discussed an investment with several potential partners including Microsoft Corp., and venture-capital firms including New Enterprise Associates, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

Those talks have ended, some of the people said.

Jetblack’s chief executive Jenny Fleiss left last year, succeeded by Nate Faust, Walmart senior vice president of e-commerce logistics, who had previously worked for Jet.com, the e-commerce startup Walmart bought in 2016.

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