Management 861
Eric Watkins and Eric Bergeson
IT Matters...
And It is the Implementation that Counts
So You Want to Learn More?
Woot.com is an excellent example of a company whose first-mover status and development of a unique business model gifted them with a competitive advantage. Woot's strategy merges technology and a host of complementary assets to form a successful operation that caters to a specific market. The Woot website offers "one deal a day" business model merged with a humor-driven blog. This means that, every 24-hour period, usually technical products (such as cameras, tablets, Bluetooth ear pieces, etc..) are offered at drastically reduced prices. This business model allows Woot to keep low overhead, minimal staff and manageable inventory levels.
The model itself is not impossible to duplicate. In fact, there are now over 100 one deal per day websites related to anything from jewelry to furniture. Large, established e-tailers are even following suit. Amazon has a gold box deal or Newegg's "shell shocker" deal. But even here, Woot has used technology for a strong competitive advantage. Through social networking, Woot.com has not only been able to capture, but also create a dedicated customer base. Woot uses a unique mixture of sarcasm and innovation to promote its website through humorous descriptions of daily products, weekly webcasts, blogs, and the woot community (consumer posts on all past product, forums for random discussion, etc…). This has created an environment which loyal shoppers visit daily, a rare feat for a retail outlet. But, it is important to remember, it was the unique marriage between technology and implementation that made this all possible, not the technology in and of itself.
Woot was acquired by Amazon in mid-2010, however they have remained a privately held company and have continued to innovate by expanding their operations to multiple segments. Woot now has multiple web sites that offer everything from childrens toys to magazine subscriptions. Each website has retained both a similar business model and a similar culture (of course, slightly modified to the target market) of the original website. [See List on the Sidebar](To name a few Sellout.woot, Deals.woot, and Kids.woot). They even have a secret website which only occasionally has deals called Moofi.com (woot! flipped upside down).
Amazon's acquisition of the company demonstrates that it was easier to buy the competitive advantage Woot has developed than to try and duplicate it, despite easily having the resources to do so. Woot has proven that technology is just the starting point for a business and that it is the creativity and innovation that will allow any type of operation to achieve continued success.
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Links of Interest
Great Inc. Articles on Woot
On the Founder
Imitated but Never Duplicated
Amazon Gold
Box, Newegg Shell Shocker, Bling Daily, and Yugster
Woot Expanded
Woot Sellout, Woot Shirts, Kids.Woot, Home.Woot, and Moofi