Amazon.com, which sells millions of products, announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire Woot, a website that sells only one product per day, according to the NY Times.
Woot is one of many shopping sites that have emerged in recent years in the largest wave of e-commerce innovations since the introduction of Amazon and eBay. The tactics used by these sites to attract customers would astonish traditional retailers. Some, like Woot, sell only one product per day, while others, such as Groupon, cancel purchases if there are not enough buyers. Others, like Gilt, restrict access to customers who are not members, even though membership is free. For customers on sites like Woot, this can feel like a game where they compete against time and other buyers to get the best price. For retailers, such sites are a good way to deal with excess inventory and attract new customers to their brands.
Woot, founded in 2004, which has 2.75 million registered users, is one of the first sites to offer one product sold for 24 hours until it sells out. On Wednesday, for example, it was selling iPod Nano devices for $99.99, significantly lower than on Amazon, where the price was $122.54. In addition to consumer electronics, Woot sells wine, toys, and t-shirts. Amazon, which became the sole outside investor in Woot in 2006, announced that it expects to complete the acquisition in the third quarter of this year. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Woot is also a wholesale supplier that sells to Amazon and other retailers. This allows it to have exclusive discounted inventory and differentiate itself from numerous competitors, said Matt Rutledge, Woot’s CEO. The company is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas. After the acquisition, it will continue to operate separately from Amazon. Rutledge, known for his sharp sense of humor, assured employees that there would not be major changes after the acquisition: – It will be like adding one person to the organizational hierarchy, except that this person is a billion-dollar corporation that can buy and sell each of you as if you were a piece of office furniture. (Z. S.)
