For a $49.99 annual membership fee, Jet.com shoppers can buy health and beauty items, groceries, pet foods, home and garden items, computers and consumer electronics, and books.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Upstart online retailer Jet.com launched Tuesday, trying to carve out sales from big-box warehouse clubs and e-commerce giants such as Amazon.com.
Started by e-commerce veteran Marc Lore and based in Hoboken, N.J., Jet.com promises to offer customers rock-bottom prices on millions of items, based on where they live and what they buy.
For a $49.99 annual membership, Jet.com shoppers can buy health and beauty items, groceries, pet foods, home and garden items, computers and consumer electronics, and books. Jet is also offering free three-month trial memberships.
Sam's Club's annual memberships cost $45 for the basic or business level, and $100 for the Sam's Plus level. Costco Wholesale Corp. membership costs $55 for Gold Star or business members, and $110 per year for executive membership.
At Jet, the larger your total purchase, the greater your savings. Shoppers can also pay with debit cards or waive their rights to free returns in order to get more discounts.
Jet offers free shipping to the 48 mainland states and the District of Columbia on orders of $35 or more; orders smaller than $35 ship for $5.99.
Amazon.com Prime members pay $99 a year for free two-day shipping on eligible purchases, unlimited streaming of movies and TV, and the ability to borrow ebooks.
Jet members can also earn up to 20 percent JetCash on purchases from partner retailers' sites accessed via Jet.com.
"The old economics of saving money meant you had to buy items in bulk -- and that's weird," explains Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani-born stand-up comedian and actor, in a video on Jet.com. "Because five pounds of mayonnaise is actually a fundamentally ridiculous thing to buy. When you're done with it, you can live inside the jar -- seven years from now. That's how long it's going to take."
"Jet.com is transformationalizing the shopping club. So now you can buy human-sized mayonnaise -- and millions of other human-sized things -- at teeny, tiny prices," he said.
"We call it 'Jet' because jets are awesome and powerful, and so is Jet's pricing algorithm," he adds.
"We've set out to make shopping more transparent, more efficient, and at the same time, a little more fun," Jet says on its website.