HoopStick is Woot To The Next Level
Most people are aware of Woot.com, the online deal-a-day sales site. Because of its success, Woot has had a lot of clones try to mimic it, but rarely do they get even close. Until now.
HoopStick.com is a sort of Woot clone, but with a big twist: it focuses on only one product and has a dynamic pricing structure based on market forces. Sounds complicated, but it isn’t. Here’s how it works:
An item is posted (only one item per day) with its retail price tag as the sell price. As more people view the item, but few people actually buy it, the item’s price begins to lower. This updates every fifteen seconds. As soon as someone purchases the item at the current price, the price stops going down. More purchases means it goes up, fewer purchases makes it drop again. You can look at the item’s history to track it’s changes throughout the day and try to predict if it will drop any lower than it already is.
Once you’ve decided to buy the item at its current price, you click and “stick” that price. You then have forty-five seconds to confirm that you’ll purchase it and another five minutes to complete the transaction or lose the deal and have to start over. This keeps people from “camping” on a low price to see if it goes lower.
It’s a great idea and so far is off to a great start. Right now, as the site is being tweaked and updated, sales are only active on the weekends (Friday through Sunday). No word on whether they’ll be doing more than one product a day, but the concept is there and very unique.
