Jet takes on Amazon, Target with new private brand 'Uniquely J'

Dive Brief:

Walmart-owned Jet.com announced the official launch of a private label consumer goods line it’s calling "Uniquely J" on Monday, according to a company press release.
The brand includes 50 SKUs in coffee, cleaning, laundry, pantry, paper, and food storage categories, with more on the way, according to the release.
The move comes amid strong demand for high quality private label goods. According to Nielsen research, the number of heads of households shopping at dollar stores under 35 years-old earning more than $100,000 a year increased 7.1% between 2012 and 2015, compared to 3.6% at all retail stores. Some 29% of millennial dollar store consumers earn over $100,000 annually and accounted for about 25% of sales at those stores, much of it no-name brands of common household items, according to market research firm NPD's Checkout Tracking.

Dive Insight:

Thanks to their high quality and low prices, private label goods enjoy enthusiastic demand from shoppers these days, demonstrated by the success of Costco's Kirkland brand, Target's well performing apparel and home goods lines, the no-frills offerings from Aldi, Lidl and Trader Joe's, and Amazon's snack, apparel and electronics brands. In fact, AmazonBasics goods are crushing other retailer’s private brands, the Amazon Elements and Amazon Essentials lines aren’t far behind, and its acquisition of Whole Foods has garnered the e-commerce giant its 365 line.

A mainstreamed private label, especially in a combined online and brick-and-mortar play, allows retailers to reach the kind of "selling motion" that Costco has with its Kirkland brand, according to Matt Sargent, senior vice president of retail at consulting firm Frank N. Magid Associates. "In some ways, Costco has been a 'frenemy' of CPG in the same way Amazon has been a 'frenemy' of CPG," Sargent told Retail Dive earlier this year. "Costco has done this well. They’ve taken the Kirkland brand and made it part of a selling motion, stock-up purchases plus impulse purchases are with the Kirkland brand. The quality and price of stock-up things like Kirkland batteries or socks lead to purchases of Kirkland nuts, even though you may have always preferred Planters.”

In this landscape, Jet, whose initial mission was predicated on beating Amazon on price, could hardly continue to ignore the demand for private label goods. Dan Hooker, general manager of private brands for Jet.com and Walmart ecommerce, said the brand fulfills a value promise.

"Uniquely J was created to make it easier for busy consumers to get their everyday essentials without having to give up the things they care about," he said in a statement. "With Uniquely J, we want to eliminate the tradeoffs consumers face; the purchase decision becomes an easy one when each product offers the trifecta of quality, style, and value."