Amazon has announced it will purchase the popular site Woot.com, the site that became famous for selling just one item at a time, usually at a large discount from its normal prices.
Retailers use sites like Woot to either dump excess inventory or introduce new customers to their brand of products.
Consumers, on the other hand, get the thrill of racing other would-be buyers for a sharply discounted item.
Woot launched in 2004 and now has 2.75 million registered users. The site sells all types of items, but mostly electronics. For example, today’s Woot item is the Apple iPod Nano 8GB, 5th Generation , selling for $99 USD, a big discount from even Amazon, which has the same item listed at $125.
Amazon was Woot’s only outside investor, when they bought a piece in 2006.
The NYTimes explains that Woot is also a wholesale distributor, which distributes to Target, Amazon, and others.
Result for: target
A newly leaked Black Friday ad is showing that giant retailer Best Buy will be slashing Blu-ray prices to their lowest ever, even undercutting Target’s recent promotional initiative.
Catalog titles such as The Departed will sell for $7.99 in the high-definition format. New releases, such as Wolverine and Monsters vs Aliens are selling for $9.99. A few more expensive titles, such as the new Gladiator BD, are selling for $12.99, all lower price points than have ever been previously available.
Many DVDs will go on sale for $3.99, such as last year’s blockbuster The Dark Knight.
Additionally, Best Buy will be offering Sony and Samsung BD-Live Blu-ray players for $149, matching Amazon and Wal-Mart. Its own Insignia brand players will retail for $99.
Result for: target
For the third time now in just a matter of weeks, a leaked catalog ad is showing the Xbox 360 Elite set for a price cut to $299 USD.
The latest ad, from Target and posted by Engadget, also shows a price drop on the 60GB Pro model that should lead the model to its ultimate demise.
Expected price cut date is August 30th.
In other news however, retailers in the UK will be soon raising the price of the Arcade Xbox 360 to GBP 159.99 beginning on September 1st due to the weakening USD.
