New e-commerce company delivered to TRIC

EDAWN has bagged yet another distribution center for the Reno/Sparks market.

In its second announcement this month, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada said Thursday that e-commerce newcomer Jet.com has opened a 160,000 square-foot, west coast warehouse and distribution center in the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center.

The announcement comes on the heals of its Jan. 14 announcement that BetterWorld Books would open a warehouse in the Stead area of Reno.

“We have several others we’re working on and a couple more announcements could come in the next 30 to 45 days,” Mike Kazmierski, CEO of EDAWN, told the NNBW in a phone interview.

“Our prospect visit activity continues to grow.”

Jet’s TRIC distribution center is already up and running with 59 regular employees plus 70 through Inteliisource, according to General Manager Deepak Madabushi. The company is adding to its staff by about eight people per week.

By the end of 2016, the company expects to hire 150 to 180 employees for the TRIC distribution center, with staffing levels expected to reach 500 in five years.

“It is exciting to see an up and coming e-commerce company choose our region for their growth in the west,” said Kazmierski, who made the formal announcement at a reception Jan. 21 at Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. “Jet.com has an exceptional business model that has had amazing success with consumers in just a short period of time. We are proud to be a part of this innovative new company’s explosive growth.”

“We’re super excited to be here,” Jet founder Marc Lore told the crowd of government and business officials at the reception. “We’re looking not only to hire hundreds of people but, more importantly, our core values mean a lot to us.

“We want the happiest workforce. We expect people not only to have secure jobs, but also to love working here.”

New Jersey-based Jet, which launched nationwide in July 2015, is staging itself to compete with e-commerce giant Amazon. Lore said he expects the e-commerce industry to be a trillion dollars in business in the next three years.

“There’s room for more than one player and more than one way of doing business,” said Lore, an e-commerce veteran who founded Quidsi, the parent company of Diapers.com, which he sold to Amazon in 2010 for $545 million.

Jet.com is powered by a smart technology that looks for innovative ways to pull costs out of the supply chain and, together with its retailer and brand partners, shares those savings with shoppers.

For starters, rather than setting standard prices, Jet uses a “real-time pricing algorithm” to determine the price, which can be different at different times or for different shipping destinations, mainly do to distribution costs. For instance, if multiple products can be shipped from the same distribution center, they cost less than if they’re shipped from separate locations.

The Jet.com shopping experience also includes tips on additional savings, such as choosing a lower-cost payment method, buying certain products together, or forgoing free returns.

Investors have banked on Jet’s innovations by investing $700 million in the fast growing startup.

That should be good for Reno too.

“We chose the Reno area due to its strong workforce, fulfillment infrastructure and ability to provide two-day shipping to most western states in the U.S.,” said Nate Faust, Jet.com COO and co-founder. “We’re very excited about the new fulfillment center and our presence in the Reno area.”

Faust told the audience that Jet expects to be a $20 billion company in five years. “That’s 40 times where we are today,” he said.

“As the company grows this region will grow.”

Business partners that assisted Jet.com in their decision to establish themselves here include Storey County, Jones Lang LaSalle-David Cantwell and Intellisource.