Deal a Day Websites
Well it’s fairly self-explanatory; a deal a day is website is just that – a website that promotes and sells a new, greatly discounted product each day. Since the product is usually available at midnight, this generates a significant amount of buzz for all users to check daily - I know I’m a repeat offender. Of course there are variations of these sites, let’s take a look at some.
The original and some would say ‘greatest’ is Woot. Each of the ‘deal a day’ websites stemmed from this main site and have done exceptionally well. Woot is simple, clean, and has some neat discussion forums which allow users to comment on the product for the day. Here people offer their advice based on owning the product, past experience, and sometimes persuade others to buy since the price depicts a genuine “steal”.
Another example is a New Zealand site, 1-day. These guys give you 3 items on offer for the 1 day. Though the deals may be tempting, the idea of taking focus away from 1 product and broadening over 3 defeats the purpose of a ‘single deal’ a day. Amongst these sites, new products tend to change over at midnight (12am) as the new day begins, however 1-day switchover their deal at lunchtime (12pm). Switching over at such a convenient time has proven to be more beneficial as a higher number of visitors have access during lunch rather than midnight to refresh for the new deal.
In the midst of these two players, my favourite of all would have to be Zazz. The “One Day, One Thing, One Chance” guys over at Zazz have hit the nail on the head. Their layout and design is ever so simple, clean and fresh (despite being a few years old). The left pane consists of a live countdown timer, blog, and past products - otherwise known as “Past Zazz’m”. All daily products are thoroughly tried and tested by employees, generally with an example YouTube video showing it in action. Given that these websites only offer x number of products daily, Zazz have decided to add a touch of humour by naming and shaming the last member to purchase, generally in the format of “This item has sold out. Member to blame: johnsmith”. Furthermore, their product overviews for the day are written using very clever and witty language, which are always a good read at 9am.
There you have it! Having a fairly smart yet not so unique business model as these so called ‘Deal a Day’ websites and you’re well on your way to internet stardom. Do you have an idea, or feel like grabbing a 1-day deal? As Zazz would say “You’d better grab yours now – they won’t be here tomorrow!”
