Online marketplace Jet.com launched yesterday in the US and is being touted as a possible competitor to etail giant Amazon.

Jet.com, which raised $255m (£163.2m) before launching, stocks everyday items such as toothpaste and toilet paper, as well as electricals and food. It promises to offer big savings to customers who buy multiple items in a single order.

Membership of the site will cost $49.99 (£32) a year it offers free two-day shipping and benefits including video and music streaming.

The start-up’s executive vice-president and chief customer officer Liza Landsman told Wired.com: “We’re trying to do something different in that, pretty much anything you want to buy from TVs to toilet paper, you could get 10% to 15% off what you normally spend, without doing anything other than coming to our site and becoming a member.”

Jet’s revenue will reportedly come purely from membership fees, not sales, allowing the company to charge the lowest prices possible for products.

On its website, Jet says: “We’ve set out to make shopping more transparent, more efficient, and at the same time, a little more fun.

“We share a sense of community with our members and our partners, and we’re striving to create a business model that reflects that. We don’t profit on the products we sell — just on membership fees — so our goals are aligned with yours and those of our partners.”

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