etailology

The etail site I talk about the most is Woot.com. They best embody the concept that Auragen calls “Brand Membership,” and they have in a single year amassed 500,000 registered users, despite their small size.

Woot’s online catalog contains only a single item each day, and they do not tell users how much stock is on hand. This strange sales concept is a powerful conceit which enables Woot’s domination as a web marketer, allowing Woot to achieve the “holy grail” of Internet retail marketing: daily visits by users eager to buy. How do they do it? They leverage the promise and purpose of the Internet in a way which demonstrates a deep and abiding understanding for how the Web works.

Woot’s copywriting is reason enough to visit the site. Funny and irreverant, it epitomizes Internet culture through self deprecation, dry wit, and tell-em-like-it-is bravado. They often qualify their products as “mediocre” “ridiculous” or “unecessary” even while asking the user to buy. Add to this the daily “Wootcast” an original song (yes, a song) recorded about each day’s product. In addition, Woot uses other techniques to get people to return to the site each day:

Scheduled Features:

1. On Mondays, Woot announces the winners to its weekly Photoshop contest, in which users are encouraged to submit photo-edited images which incorporate Woot products into a particular theme. (Monday typicallys brings a creative reference to Woot’s weekly sister site wine.woot.com.)
2. On “YouTubesday” Woot posts a blog entry highlighting the most exciting and noteworthy YouTube posts made during the last week. This YouTube redux is the best on the Internet. Tuesdays also feature “two-fer” deals, where products are offered in pairs.
3. Wednesday witnesses “Worst Woot Ever” contestants. The products featured on this day are truly awful. It’s like passing an accident on the highway: you can’t look away. Woot also uses Wednesday to post its own PR and provides an overview of Wiki activity on the Web.
4. Fridays see the announcement of the secret theme of Woot’s weekly photoshop contest, and user submitted entries to the contest sustain the site through the weekend with comments on Woot forums.

Real and Implied Contests:

1. Woot’s weekly Photoshop contest allows participants to demonstrate their skills and viewers to see side-splittingly-funny visual jokes. Contest entries and comments typically amass hundreds of comments on the Woot forums.
2. Many of the items Woot sells are highly desirable and offered at a low price. They can sell out quickly. (Sometimes, literally, in seconds.) Being the first person to buy the new item grants bragging rights in Woot’s online forums. (As an added wrinkle, Woot posts each day’s item at midnight central-standard-time requiring most die-hard customers to stay up late in order to get in on the fun.) Woot publishes who bought the first item (”first sucker”), who bought the last (”wooter to blame”), and how much they sold per hour (”woot wage”).
3. Purchaser Experience is a factor as well. Woot publishes statistics on its purchasers to show how many of them have, for example, bought ten Woots or more. Users list their woots in the signature attachments to their forum posts: a point of pride and community standing.
4. On user account pages, it reads:

• • Heading: “Your Account”
  • Tiny Subprint immediately underneath: “…secretly determines whether you get into heaven.”

“Blockbuster” Events

1. “Bag of Crap” is Woot’s biggest blockbuster. Occasionally (and on an unknown schedule), Woot offers an item titled “Random Crap.” This item is a contest of sorts. Typically available in a few thousand units for “$1 for each crap” (limit: three craps per order). Users who order “random crap” truly have no idea what they will receive. While typically worth more than the $1 entry fee, items received range from broken toys, powercords, and empty boxes to the rare and significant “bags of crap” which have contained 61 inch plasma televisions, X-Boxes, DVRs, and more. Users are encouraged to photograph their shipments as they arrive. Crap deliveries are anticipated with no less than Christmas-eve levels of excitement.
2. “Woot-Off” is an event (signified by flashing lights on the home page) where Woot, upon selling out of its posted item, immediately posts another item (instead of waiting until midnight). Woot-Offs can last for days, and Woot takes pains to offer particularly desirable items during the middle of the night, just to torture its users. There is even an original “Theme for Wooting Off” musical score delivered via downloadable podcast.

The ultimate measure of consumer Brand Membership is how quickly an oversight or mistake will be forgotten. In Woot’s case, their site regularly crashes at midnight as the new item is offered. But customers quickly forgive: if the site is overwhelmed, it must be a great Woot tonight!

In Woot’s case, Brand Membership has translated into rocketing sales, strong loyalty, and a network of word-of-mouth referrals which can’t be beat. Perhaps you’d be interested in the same results for your etail site?

[techtags: woot, bag_of_crap, brand_membership, etail_design, ecommerce_design, brand_experience]