*By Alisha Haridasani* Walmart is betting that the “time savings” and “human touches” of its new Jetblack shopping service will set it apart from its e-commerce rival Amazon, said Jenny Fleiss, the delivery service's founder and CEO. Jetblack, a creation of Walmart’s Store No. 8 tech incubator, is a concierge-style, invite-only service that launched Thursday in New York. Customers can send shopping requests via text or askJetblack's team of experts for recommendations, Fleiss said in an interview with Cheddar’s Nora Ali. It offers same or next-day deliveries, and will send employees to pick up any returns. At $50 a month, the service is considerably more than Amazon’s $13-a-month Prime membership, which has dominated e-commerce. “Jetblack is focused on conversational commerce,” said Fleiss, who also co-founded the fashion service site Rent the Runway. “We’re using a combination of humans and also machine learning technology to serve up the best fit product for a consumer. For run-of-the-mill shopping requests, like repeat orders of laundry detergent or toilet paper, Jetblack customers can expect a shopping bot to handle their purchases. For personalized requests, a human will step in, Fleiss said. “You always want that human touch," she said. "You want to make it really feel usable and approachable and real so that people trust the interaction." Walmart hopes those interactions are efficient, for customer and retailer. “If we can save you a few hours of time each month then that could be worth $50 for you,” said Fleiss. “That could be time researching and reading product reviews, making mental lists that would just clutter being present with your family, it could be time doing a return.” Jetblack is only available in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a clear play by [Walmart](https://cheddar.com/videos/walmart-upgrades-digital-services-to-boost-in-store-experiences) to target urban consumers, but Fleiss said there are ambitions to expand the service. “I do hope that this touches every person in the U.S. in some way and that we find a model for each demographic,” she said. For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/reporting-live-from-walmart-hq).
