Jet.com is shutting down its cash-back rewards program, Jet Anywhere, on May 1, 2017, according to a statement placed on the company web site.
The program enables consumers to leave Jet’s own site to shop on Jet Anywhere-affiliated sites, then email receipts of their purchases to Jet to collect “JetCash” earmarked toward future orders. Despite the shutdown, customers will still be able to redeem remaining JetCash balances through May 1, 2018.
“Jet Anywhere launched when we were still in the early stages of building our product catalog; it was intended to help our shoppers save on items they couldn’t find on Jet,” the statement said. “Since then, though, our assortment has grown to over 20 million items and counting — and by shutting down Jet Anywhere, we can focus in on adding more great brands to the site and finding you innovative new ways to save.”
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With such a wide product assortment now backed by Walmart’s infrastructure, Jet.com apparently doesn’t need a cashback program to expose its audience to more merchandise.
Retailers of all sizes create rewards programs to add more incentives to the shopping experience. But the cancellation of Jet Anywhere shows that such programs aren’t always a fit. Cash-back programs are often popular parts of credit card plans, but they can be perceived as a gimmick if too many stipulations are involved.
If there is a lesson here, it’s that retailers (especially in today’s dire financial climate) must use loyalty programs to focus consumers’ attention on their own product or service offerings. Partnerships with other retailers can create synergies, but it’s problematic to shift the consumer to another site for the sake of a potential future purchase.
Jet.com consistently stayed mum on the success of the platform, with no information as to the revenue generated from it or the number of users involved. With that in mind, it’s not known how much the decision to cancel the service was financially motivated.
Even in its infancy, Jet Anywhere gained publicity for the wrong reasons. The cashback program initially caused controversy for Jet in the weeks after the company debuted in July 2015, when 70 different retailers requested that the retailer remove their links from the site.
