Woot

Woot is an American Internet retailer that was founded and based in Dallas. Founded in 2004, the website has grown over the years and expanded into other categories with spinoff sites such as Wine.Woot. Woot operates as a Deal of the Day website, usually offering one heavily discounted deal per day. In 2010, Woot was acquired by Amazon.com.^[1]

Sales Approach[edit]

Woot is one of the original (and most successful) Deal of the Day websites. Woot's popularity has lead to many other business adopting this model. Woot's model typically allows users to buy up to three items per day of the deal, however there are items that are more limited depending on the item. Items are typically shipped via FedEx SmartPost.

An item is posted to Woot's website every night at midnight Central Time. This item is typically available for 24 hours although the item can sell out over the course of the day. In the case of an item that sells out, Woot will not feature a new item until Midnight.

Woot has been known to occasionally offer items that are no longer in stock causing heavy shipping delays. This is a rare practice however.^[2][3]

Marketing style[edit]

The company is keenly aware of its costumers and is irreverent in its product descriptions. Oftentimes the description will mock the product, the company, or even Woot. Negatives form the product are often highlighted and will be used as jokes. Serious details such as the actual product description is listed below the Woot written description. The community will often do their own research and post their opinions as well as links to product reviews and other costs on the user forums. The Woot staff will read through the community posts and pick important ones listed as "quality" and features them at the top of the forum.

Special Features[edit]

Woot features a number of special sales days.

Woot-Off[edit]

Occasionally, (usually roughly once a month or corresponding with special holidays), Woot will feature a special sales feature known as a "Woot-Off". This sale is denoted by flashing alarm lights on the webpage and a progress bar denoting the amount of a certain product left. They are an unknown amount of time usually dependent on how long products take to sell out. As soon as the progress bar reaches zero, a new product will be posted in its place.

Bag of Crap[edit]

Bags of Crap, also known as BOC and many other names by the Woot community, are sold generally during a Woot-Off. These events are wildly popular and generally lead to a server crash. Often these items will sell out within seconds. In the BOC it is generally expected that a BOC has several "crappy" items and one "good" item. The collective value of the BOC is higher than the nominal cost, $3.00, of the BOC.

X-for-Tuesday[edit]

Woot generally offers a X-for-Tuesday deal every Tuesday. This deal is used to offer some multiple of a product such as such as 3-for-Tu3sday, 4-for-4uesday, 5-for-Tue5day, 6-for-Tue6day, or the most common 2-for-Tuesday.

Other Woot sites[edit]

Woot's popularity has lead to several spin-off sites being created. Most of these follow the same model as the original site.

Wine Woot[edit]

Wine Woot was launched in the Summer of 2006 and offers wine and generally "higher end" products. Wine Woot is only allowed to be delivered to a limited number of states due to various state legislation. Wine Woot provides a list of states that are available to ship to for each item. Wine Woot typically features a "Woot-Off" type sale when the main website is having its "Woot-Off".

Shirt Woot[edit]

Woot Shirts holds a daily design based on some topic that has been declared in the morning. The designs that receive the most votes are then produced and sold the following day. Winners of the design receive payment for the design and royalties for the first day of sale on the shirt. The designs are silk-screened at Woot's main facility. Shirts that win the contest are offered at a discounted rate their first day. They are generally available for sale for multiple days after in what is known as the Reckoning on a separate page.

Unlike the main Woot site, Woot Shirts offers international shipping and free standard shipping in the US.

Woot will offer a Random Shirt day, at discounted cost for shirts that have been discontinued.

Kids Woot[edit]

Kids Woot was launched on August 18, 2009. The items featured on Kids Woot are generally geared towards children, and range from baby toys to electronics. Kids Woot also features a "Woot-Off" on days that the original site has one.

Moofi Woot[edit]

Moofi (Woot! upside down) is a unique spin-off of the Woot model as it can have several deals running at the same time. The Moofi subdomain links directly to the Woot! main page, so to find new Moofi deals it is nescessary to search for Moofi on the Deals.Woot page.

References[edit]

1. ↑ The Blog - June 30, 2010 - BREAKING: Woot To Be Acquired By Amazon, Then Left To Amuse Ourselves
2. ↑ http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=4352112
3. ↑ http://www.woot.com/WhatIsWoot.aspx#q3

External links[edit]

Woot Home Page Woot Blog Woot Community Kids Woot Shirt Woot Wine Woot