Jane.com Sellers, We're Here To Help You

Jane.com Has Shut Down

Billion-dollar marketplace Jane.com has shut down, and it owes its e-commerce merchants hundreds of thousands of dollars. What was once a successful platform has now gone bankrupt, leaving thousands of e-commerce merchants in debt. This happened right before Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is a huge deal for these sellers. Jane.com sellers, you need to act fast. Let's talk about it.

So yeah, guys, a platform that has its best-selling days on Black Friday and Cyber Monday has shut down. Things must have been really bad at Jane.com.

My History With Jane.com

So let's rewind this back. Disclaimer: I am not a Jane.com expert, nor am I a fashion expert. However, here are some of the interactions I've personally had with the company over the years.

In 2018, I shared an office building with Jane.com, and I semi-regularly went to meet with the higher-ups. My sourcing division at the time helped some of their bigger sellers with importing their goods from China and Vietnam. In 2021, I was a seller on their platform through Qualtree. I also have people in my network who are close to the founders, and I continue to stay in touch with some of the sellers on the platform.

A Quick History of Jane.com

Here's a quick history of Jane.com if you don't know it. Jane.com was founded in 2011, and at their peak, they were doing over $250 million in revenue. They were a marketplace that attracted tons of fashion and décor boutiques. They did over a billion dollars in revenue in less than 10 years. They were Utah's darling company.

I remember working on the first floor of the same building they operated out of, from 2018 through 2020. Those were Jane's peak years, and they had the best reputation. I remember they were the place everybody wanted to go work for. And now, in just a few short years, they've laid off all of their employees, ceased operations, and they owe their sellers upwards of a couple hundred thousand dollars. For those of you who don't know, this sucks for anybody who sells any decent volume through Jane.

Why Jane Failed: My Take

So what caused the downfall of Jane? Here are three reasons why I personally think Jane failed, from my perspective.

1. Perception vs. Reality

Number one: perception versus reality — the delusion of the founders and the higher-ups. I think if you asked Jane buyers why they went to Jane to purchase, they'd probably say something like, “Oh, I go there to get some stylish leggings, or a cardigan, or beanies that are cute.” In my eyes, Jane was always just stylish boutique fashion, and they did that really well.

The founders, on the other hand, seemed like they thought they were this high-end brand. I say this because when I went to their office, walked in the doors and looked at all the décor and how they had everything set up, it always seemed like they were trying to be like Gucci or Louis Vuitton. I remember touring the building for the first time, and they said in a bragging way, “Oh yeah, this brick cost us more than $250,000.” I'm like, bro, you guys sell $5 leggings.

I think this type of delusion really held back the founders and the higher-ups from understanding where they had actually found product-market fit, which was cheap fashion. They were always trying to make Jane something that it wasn't.

2. Identity Issues

Number two: identity issues. Again, Jane was cheap fashion. They found product-market fit in cheap fashion. So instead of going all in on this and becoming like a classy Shein that does billions of dollars per year in cheap fashion, they kept doubling down on things that weren't actually driving growth.

I remember in 2018, someone high up at Jane wanted me and my sourcing division to help source toys or electronics. They told me they were expanding into toys, games and even electronics. I remember hearing that and thinking, why is Jane selling toys and electronics? They sell leggings and beanies.

Another sign, from my perspective, that they didn't understand their own identity was how harsh they were against having foreign sellers on their platform. They hated the idea of a Chinese factory or a trading company becoming a seller. The problem with this is that the most popular listings on Jane.com were just things imported really cheaply from China or Vietnam and resold at a slight markup.

This is just my personal opinion, but I think they would have done well to lean into this and allow foreign sellers onto the platform. They would have just had to differentiate themselves with unique designs and step up their sourcing game, which I think they totally could have done.

3. Founder Drama and Internal Issues

Number three: founder drama and internal issues. Most people at Jane will say that they peaked in 2019, and everything went downhill from there. Now, this is just a rumor, and I don't know to what degree it's true, but apparently when the founders left, they took a large percentage of the recent round of funding with them — millions and millions of dollars that the business clearly could have used to survive.

I never met the new CEO, but it seems like she didn't change any of the above issues. They went deeper into their delusional identity, they kept missing on category expansions, and the executive-employee relationship only got worse, according to Glassdoor.

Jane.com Sellers, We're Here to Help

So if you're a seller on Jane.com watching this, I wish you the best of luck. I can only imagine what it must be like right now: having purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory, having your payouts paused on sales you already fulfilled, and getting ready for the busiest time in your business — Black Friday and Cyber Monday — only to find out that your main platform is dead.

I would love to help out in any way possible. I've developed multiple products, and I've sold on Amazon, Etsy, Shopify and the big-box retailers. If I can even just help in some way, let me know — even if it's data scrubbing or listing products to help you get onto another platform.

Luminous is here to help out. I'm happy to do a phone call with you and help in any way I can. Just sign up on this page right here, or go to joinluminous.com and book a demo with us. We'd love to help.