That led to a ton of funding which allowed for extremely aggressive marketing and customer acquisition, not to mention plenty of media coverage.
If anyone can battle Amazon, it's probably Jet. I can see why Walmart would want Jet (and Marc) in their camp.
I'd be careful about drawing too many conclusions from this story. For one thing, you are not Marc Lore. With a successful Amazon sale under his belt, he certainly had a leg up on fundraising over almost anyone. His name alone helped to generate buzz.
But even being Marc Lore is enough. I worked for his cofounder from diapers.com and you've probably never even heard of that company—building hype requires a compelling narrative, not just a big name.
What's remarkable is Jet was able to pull this off by being in meatspace, by acting as a VC-subsidized arbitrage broker for consumer products, hoping to get enough mindshare to be considered more of a threat than a nuisance so it can get bought out. It worked!
I tried this site once and it was a disastrous experience. Their customer service is horrendous, and the complete opposite of Amazon. After that purchase it became pretty clear to me that Amazon has nothing to worry about.
This reminds me, I have around $100 in credits from 1 failed order because they messed up multiple times. Would be awesome if they sold Amazon gift cards.