The first “portfolio business” startup to emerge out of Walmart Inc.’s Store No. 8 technology incubator is a high-end personal shopping subscription service called Jetblack that enables consumers to shop via text message. The service offers same-day delivery for most orders placed before 2 p.m. and next-day delivery for most other items.

A courier collects a shopper’s entire order, which he delivers in a tote bag. Shoppers also can text the service to return items, which the courier will pick up.

The service, which the retailer has been testing in Manhattan buildings that have a doorman for eight months, is $50 a month. It plans to expand to Brooklyn “soon.”

“Many of the norms of e-commerce that we live with today haven’t changed for at least five years; we see a big opportunity there to challenge those norms,” said Jenny Fleiss, CEO and co-founder of Jetblack, on Thursday in announcing the launch during Walmart’s Shareholders Meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Jetblack aims to do so by offering what the retailer is calling “click-free” shopping by allowing consumers to shop via text message. “We believe this is game-changing technology that will power the future of retail five years down the road,” she said.

When a consumer signs up for the service, she receives an “onboarding” phone call that typically runs about 10 minutes in which a Jetblack associate asks for information, such as her product and brand preferences, as well as any relevant information such as allergies. The retailer also offers a service in which an employee visits the shopper’s home and scans the items to place them in her “essentials” list. As part of the retailer’s welcome kit, it sends her a pair of Apple Inc. Airpods to enable her to use text-to-voice technology to interact with the assistant, which Jetblack calls “J.”

Once the retailer has the consumer’s information, the shopper can text J to order any item ranging from paper towels to a Chanel handbag, as the retailer isn’t limiting the items it offers to Walmart or Jet’s inventory. For now, the only product categories not currently available are groceries, alcohol, prescriptions and tobacco products. However, Fleiss tells Internet Retailer it plans to add groceries in the future.

J is a hybrid of artificial intelligence-powered technology and human associates. For simple requests, such as “order paper towels,” a human associate may not be involved. Other interactions, such as a request or a recommendation for a pair of shoes to go with a given dress, it might defer to a human expert.

To date, Jetblack has “unofficial partnerships” with a handful of merchants, such as high-end toy store Norman & Jules in which the retailer will have a courier pick up and deliver items from the store. Over time, it aims to formalize some of those relationships to enable it to access other merchants’ inventory.

“A key benefit to consumers is [Jetblack offers the] ability to shop for everything in one place,” Fleiss said.

While the service is initially designed for an urban environment such as New York City, it may adopt an “Uber-like” pricing model as it expands into other markets, particularly those where it may not be able to offer as many items with same-day delivery, Fleiss tells Internet Retailer.

Walmart is No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2018 Top 1000.