RIP Woot.

I haven't bought anything in months.

Amazon doesn't understand Woot. We're just looking for one great deal a day. Just one.

Otherwise its just another saleaday.com, another graveyardmall.

Bye.

I agree with those who pointed out that there will always be some (a very vocal minority) who resist ANY type of change. Anyone whose been through corporate DISC training knows them as the "C's" of the group. So, it doesn't surprize me to hear all the dislike. I'm all for change so...keep it coming!

My 2-cents about the redesign...
The layout is just too busy for me. I'm all for progress and moving forward and getting more Woot in my Woot! but if you could scale it back just a little I'd find it more visually appealing. Right now it's on "11"...how about dialing it back to 9 & 1/2? Give yourself a little headroom.
Nigel Tufnel knows what I'm talking about...

You guys need to fix where it says on your shirt sizing that you offer a slimmer fit. I just ordered a shirt for my wife, and they are no longer a slim fit... (Of which I was just told by your customer service that the sizing has been changed). Please change that so other people can be aware of this too!

buybuybuy wrote:RIP Woot.

I haven't bought anything in months.

Amazon doesn't understand Woot. We're just looking for one great deal a day. Just one.

Otherwise its just another saleaday.com, another graveyardmall.

Bye.

Exactly.

W00T. We hardly knew ye.

If I wanted to shop on Amazon.com, I'd go to Amazon.com. All the unique charm and personality that was W00T has been sucked away by the Amazon Dyson leaving only the husk-of-a-name that was.

Sorry, buy instead of waiting for a midnight chance at a Basket of Crawfish, I can get one whenever I link-up with the New W00T.

Farewell fellow former W00Ters.

The addition of the new tab in Shirt.Woot means that the PM notification is cutoff when viewed from the forums. It's fully visible in a thread, but blocked otherwise.

Seriously, fixed widths are not good. Wrapping and percentages FTW.

Pixel wrote:I decided to wait until I had a chance to get used to the new design. For the most part I don't mind the new design. Things I like include:

• $5 shipping - would like Prime shipping even more
• the added deals...mostly (see below)
• being able to preview the items from the top bar

There are three main things I think are wrong with the New Woot:

• the product description - the thing that is uniquely Woot - is now hidden. This should be prominent on the front page. I find I rarely click through to read them anymore. I am primarily on my tablet - and clicking the link is not as simple as just clicking with a mouse. It completely disrupts the flow. When I have clicked through, I have to start reading over again to get the flow back. This has taken the fun/magic/enjoyment out of the best art of Woot.
  
• the new design is too busy. It is distracting and confusing. Over time I have learned where things are - but I have not adjusted to the over all busy feeling. I find myself spending less and less time on Woot...somedays forgetting to drop by at all.
  
• lack of diversity in products. It may not be factually true, but it feels like there is less variety these days. It also seems to have less of the quirky items that you pretty much did not know exist (Leak Frog) let alone wanted until you Wooted.
  

Overall, while I still like to check the deals, I find less reasons to visit daily and when I do visit less reasons to hang around.

This looks like a good post to use for a little review of what we're up to and why we made some of the decisions we made. Let me see here...

First, I do want to emphasize that we're constantly tweaking (and hopefully improving) things, and you'll keep seeing little changes and updates here and there. (For instance, Woot Plus events now have discussion threads!) It may not move as fast as some (even us) would like to see, but we're doing everything we can to improve the experience for you all.

Along with that, I want to be clear: We're moving forward, not back. There's no 'old' site for us to return to. We're here, in this new place, and we'll keep evolving and growing it, but there is no thought or possibility of moving back.

On to some thoughts on what we're doing and why:
The bulk of the reasons for a lot of the changes you and others mention (features feeling hidden, the design seeming busy, etc.) is connected to our expansion into Woot Plus events.

Here's the short and sweet of Woot Plus events: We have more than one good deal a day per product category.

We obviously are (and will continue to) expand into new categories (hi sport.woot!), and that's a good way for us to get you all new deals, but as much as that might go, it still leaves us turning back other deals - deals that are smaller quantities, or more niche items, or even just the second best deal out there in a given category. That sucks, for you all who might've wanted that stuff and for the vendors who were hoping to get their stuff out there.

So once we figured out we wanted to get more of the deals we were finding out there, we had to figure out how to best get the deals out and viewable to everyone. This is where it gets subjective. It's totally fair to say our execution is busy, or cluttered, or that in adding them at the size and place we did it hides or removes too many other things. That feedback is welcome, and listened to.

That said, we do have some pretty tough constraints - again, there's no point in us going to the effort of finding, buying, and putting together events if no one sees them. And honestly, anything new that is not in some way directly on our home page basically doesn't get seen. That led us to where we are now - basically a gateway style home page that lets people know all the stuff going on on that site, and an easy way to get to the other sites. Again, it's fair to say you'd have done it differently, or disagree with our prioritization or visual implementation. In fact, we will continue to look closely at how everything is or isn't working, trying out different sizes and placements, and thinking up new solutions.

It is definitely a compromise to not have our whole write-up on the home page. It's painful to think there are people who might've read it but now don't bother clicking through. But it's also painful to think of people missing good deals on stuff they'd like because they don't get introduced to it on the home page. Design is all about compromise, and our goal with the 'gateway' approach is to allow a little bit of everything to surface, rather than showing all of some things and completely burying others. Maybe we're too heavily weighted one way and too light another, and we'll keep an eye on that, but I still feel this was the right approach, and we'll move forward from here to make it better.

Of course, we can't satisfy everyone with any decision we've made or will be making. Some of you will say you can go elsewhere to get more deals, and that it's not Woot's role to have every good deal out there. I think that's fair, and there are some fairly easy ways to skip around to the daily deals and bypass the home pages if you'd like. (For instance, clicking the product photos in the navigation hovers will take you right to those sales, with full write-ups, etc.) Heck, you can figure out what's for sale on Woot without coming to the site at all - on Facebook, Twitter, one of many apps out there, RSS feeds, etc. If you're a developer type and don't like any of the ways to browse through what we're selling, make your own! We will keep working on building the best experience we can within the opportunities and constraints we have, and we hope that you'll come along with us, and keep telling us what you like and what you don't like about what we're trying.

dave bug wrote:
It is definitely a compromise to not have our whole write-up on the home page. It's painful to think there are people who might've read it but now don't bother clicking through. But it's also painful to think of people missing good deals on stuff they'd like because they don't get introduced to it on the home page. Design is all about compromise, and our goal with the 'gateway' approach is to allow a little bit of everything to surface, rather than showing all of some things and completely burying others. Maybe we're too heavily weighted one way and too light another, and we'll keep an eye on that, but I still feel this was the right approach, and we'll move forward from here to make it better.

Well, until the whole write-ups are back on the main page, I won't be buying anything. Call it the For Writers, No Compromise Strike. Of course I'll still support the writers by visiting/reading their posts. I hope others will join me.

First post ever, despite being an active Wooter since Oct '06.

I tried to give this new thing a chance. Unfortunately, Woot, as we knew it, appears to be gone forever. I haven't felt the urge to buy anything in months and the Amazon influence on the layout and approach is just awful.

I'm out.

dave bug wrote:It is definitely a compromise to not have our whole write-up on the home page. It's painful to think there are people who might've read it but now don't bother clicking through. But it's also painful to think of people missing good deals on stuff they'd like because they don't get introduced to it on the home page. Design is all about compromise, and our goal with the 'gateway' approach is to allow a little bit of everything to surface, rather than showing all of some things and completely burying others. Maybe we're too heavily weighted one way and too light another, and we'll keep an eye on that, but I still feel this was the right approach, and we'll move forward from here to make it better.

It's a compromise because TPTB seem reluctant to admit they may have made a mistake. Here's the solution. Rename the deal at woot.com to something like deal.woot.com. Create one portal, not 7. Have woot.com be that portal. Woot.com has links to all the individual deals as well as the plus deals. All the sub-sites (home.woot.com, sport.woot.com, etc.) go to the /today page. This give woot a real portal with all the deals. This also gives the customers a way to go from one deal with the write ups to another without having to "continue reading". And I still suggest adding a "Plus!" tab. I don't think most people have an issue with the plus deals. The problem is that the implementation of the plus deals has them sprinkled throughout the site and pushing the "one deal a day" down a notch. This design would put all of the Plus deals in two locations, on the true portal and on a "Plus!" page. It would also restore the write ups to home.woot.com, sport.woot.com, etc, where the customers would like to see it. The down side is that some web designer who came up with the current, busy design, will get their panties in a bunch because the end result wasn't their design.

dave bug wrote:...because they don't get introduced to it on the home page.

Oh...woot does not a home page. Woot has 7 of them.

dave bug wrote:This looks like a good post to use for a little review of what we're up to and why we made some of the decisions we made. Let me see here...

Thanks for taking the time to answer our concerns about the site and Woot. There are a lot of things I do like about the new site, the tabs at the top of the page are a great way to see the items you are selling easily. The shipping options available on some deals are great, and the site wide $5 shipping all day is awesome.

Unfortunately, I have to say I am very disappointed in the direction the company has moved. I used to have no problem telling my friends to buy from Woot, now I am finding fewer and fewer reasons to do so.

You say that now, "We have more than one good deal a day per product category."
Woot, used to have some great deals almost everyday. It may not have been something I needed or wanted but it was usually a significantly better deal than I could find elsewhere. Is that one of the things "there is no thought or possibility of moving back" on?

Along the same lines of thought, Woot used to be fun to check because of the "deals that are smaller quantities, or more niche items." It made people wonder what the next curiosity would be and when they researched prices Woot had the BEST deal on that product, not just a good deal on the same crap you can buy anywhere for the same price. You say "there's no point in us going to the effort of finding, buying, and putting together events if no one sees them." I would say when I started coming to woot, I found you because of the great deals you had, If the deal you put so much time and effort into was a great one, people will find it. There would be no need to hawk sub-par wears at the cost of the loyalty of the woot costumer.

I do understand moving forward, however by throwing out everything that made you a great brand, you are not moving forward. What you are doing is trying to capitalize on the praise and compliments that I and others like me had for the brand. You seem to have become the greasy used car dealer of Amazon, you throw a little tire shine on a clunker sell it for the same price as the guy down the street and smile well you tell me its the greatest deal on the planet.
I want the old woot back.

R.I.P Woot! you had a good run.

@snapster: I am sorry they eviscerated your vision, I am happy you were paid well for your time in the saddle.

Woot! is dead long live Woot+

dave bug wrote:This looks like a good post to use for a little review of what we're up to and why we made some of the decisions we made. Let me see here...

First, ....

Thanks for a well-thought out explanation. Appreciate the time you put into that, and agree with/understand many of your points.

But have you ever heard the phrase, "tossing out the baby with the bathwater"?----because that is what Woot has done in many ways.

I've already completely shifted to bypassing your "home" page and going straight to the products page so I can see the overview of THAT specific product, and read the ENTIRE writers' description (GO WOOT WRITERS!!!!) at once. From there, I hover over each tab at the top of the page (one of the new features I very much LOVE, btw) to see if I want to bother clicking on the "other" product pages---the Woot-plus deals are listed right there (in SMALL type or pics, as they should be--not huge) next to the main deal on the popup box for that sub-site. That's nice, too. (Assuming you won't or aren't allowed to get rid of the whole WootPlus thing, which I think was a wrong move to add in the first place...but I have a feeling that it's here to stay no matter what.) The main write-up for the product could go back on the "home" page (as it once was), if the Woot-plus deals were shrunk down to the size they should be. They are side deals, not the main daily deal. They are not deserving of taking up such a large percentage of the page at the expense of the all-important main product write-up. JMHO, of course...except that tens of thousands of loyal (some now not loyal) customers of yours agree on that.

Anyway....I still woot. But I have noticed that the deals have gone downhill, value-wise. Your prices (and the variety of your products) are no longer the great deals they once were. They are merely mediocre. If that is what Woot is going for now....mediocrity....then you're definitely heading in the right direction. (Already there in many ways, in fact.) I don't consider that to be moving "forward" the way tptb at Woot apparently do.

But you are privvy to your sales stats and we're not. If the new changes are making you more money overall, then what the customers who built your company up from 1 (2?) guy(s) in a garage to a multi-million dollar business in a very short time have to say about the matter isn't important. Woot is a profit-driven business. I understand that. It's just that it appears as if an outside influence has come in and is forcing the profit-increasing focus, to the detriment of the very features that made the site BECOME profitable in the first place. (Reminds me of how businesses are run in China, actually.) Such has been the beginning of the slippery slope to bankruptcy which has consumed other businesses who went down this same road.

But like I said...it's y'all's company (yes, that's grammatically correct for those readers not fluent in SouthernSpeak, LOL) to do with what you wish. I hope you are making the right choices....but again, fear that you are in the process of throwing that proverbial baby out on the ground to die a slow, long and drawn-out, miserable death while you whistle and merrily go about admiring your freshly-cleaned bathtub.

At least y'all HAVE read, listened to, and even implemented some of the suggestions from the community. Thank you for that!!! Many companies wouldn't even bother---they'd just say, "it's our way or the highway." And I'm sure some wooters already see it like that, but I for one (FWIW) do appreciate that you are encouraging and actually asking for and seriously considering our input/feedback.

halperez wrote:It's a compromise because TPTB seem reluctant to admit they may have made a mistake. Here's the solution. Rename the deal at woot.com to something like deal.woot.com. Create one portal, not 7. Have woot.com be that portal. Woot.com has links to all the individual deals as well as the plus deals. All the sub-sites (home.woot.com, sport.woot.com, etc.) go to the /today page. This give woot a real portal with all the deals. This also gives the customers a way to go from one deal with the write ups to another without having to "continue reading". And I still suggest adding a "Plus!" tab. I don't think most people have an issue with the plus deals. The problem is that the implementation of the plus deals has them sprinkled throughout the site and pushing the "one deal a day" down a notch. This design would put all of the Plus deals in two locations, on the true portal and on a "Plus!" page. It would also restore the write ups to home.woot.com, sport.woot.com, etc, where the customers would like to see it. The down side is that some web designer who came up with the current, busy design, will get their panties in a bunch because the end result wasn't their design.

I like this post. A LOT.
100,000 upvotes for you for the concept!

Except that there's already a dealS.woot.com....so a different, but unique, variation would have to be thought up....which would be a PIA, because "everyone" knows woot.com.

I still think that making the Woot.com "home" page back more like it was, and putting the WootPlus deals into their own tab (instead of taking up almost half of the main page) would be better. This would keep the name of the main "portal" the same as it has always been.

But it appears that they prefer the (also annoying) method which newspapers have done for years....put the first little bit of as many stories as they can cram onto the first page...then make you hunt through the rest of the paper to finish reading the article...then have to go back to the front page again...and hunt on yet another page for the rest of the next story, and so on....

It's interesting to go back and see what woot once was, and how far they've 'come' -- here's a bit from the 2004 FAQ:

What is woot and who's behind it?
woot.com is an online store and community run by the employees of a 10 year old consumer electronics distributor that focuses on close-outs and generally buying stuff cheap. Since the distributor doesn’t sell to end users, Woot, Inc provides us with an employee-store slash market-testing type of place. Hopefully the boss won’t take notice. We anticipate profitability by 2043 -- by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices.

I see only 1 item, do you sell anything else?
No. We sell 1 item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central standard time when it is replaced. However, each item we sell is in stock and ready to ship that day. Our warehouse manager thinks we are insane.

joshaw wrote: Of course I'll still support the writers by visiting/reading their posts. I hope others will join me.

I'm right there with you on this!!!

But if everyone stops buying, your idea might end up putting (some of) the writers out of a job....
Just something to consider before implementing a buying strike.

I'll still buy....but only IF it's a great price on a product I can't find elsewhere, which has always been my criteria. Won't buy if it's only a mediocre deal on something I can buy at any time from any Tom, Dikk, or Harry.
Simple as that. *shrug*

miken927 wrote:It's interesting to go back and see what woot once was, and how far they've 'come' -- here's a bit from the 2004 FAQ:

What is woot and who's behind it?
woot.com is an online store and community run by the employees of a 10 year old consumer electronics distributor that focuses on close-outs and generally buying stuff cheap. Since the distributor doesn’t sell to end users, Woot, Inc provides us with an employee-store slash market-testing type of place. Hopefully the boss won’t take notice. We anticipate profitability by 2043 -- by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices.

I see only 1 item, do you sell anything else?
No. We sell 1 item per day until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central standard time when it is replaced. However, each item we sell is in stock and ready to ship that day. Our warehouse manager thinks we are insane.

*STANDING OVATION*

But.....*sigh*.....it looks like those days are gone forever.

I made my first purchased on 6/29/2012 this year. Might be my last. I ordered Kodak Easyshare 16MP Camera. I received a box on Thursday 7/5 and opened it. I got a case for my camera to go in. I checked my order and there was another box. So I received this box today ready for the camera. Guess what I got another case for my camera. No easy way to reach anyone on this web site.

str8beth wrote:I made my first purchased on 6/29/2012 this year. Might be my last. I ordered Kodak Easyshare 16MP Camera. I received a box on Thursday 7/5 and opened it. I got a case for my camera to go in. I checked my order and there was another box. So I received this box today ready for the camera. Guess what I got another case for my camera. No easy way to reach anyone on this web site.

Email service@woot.com their customer service has been second to none and thankfully that's one thing they didn't change you can use the write us link at the top of every page.

str8beth wrote:I made my first purchased on 6/29/2012 this year. Might be my last. I ordered Kodak Easyshare 16MP Camera. I received a box on Thursday 7/5 and opened it. I got a case for my camera to go in. I checked my order and there was another box. So I received this box today ready for the camera. Guess what I got another case for my camera. No easy way to reach anyone on this web site.

Sorry about that. We've got your email and are looking into the issue. You should receive a response shortly.

The only way I'm going to wade through your new busy sites is if you offer deals that nobody else does.

Keep your eye on the ball.

Unfortunately, I'm having a hard time these days, telling the difference Woot's page and Overstock.Com's page. Woot's original claim to fame was simplicity. One item a day at a good price. That has been lost. There is no longer a reason for me to daily check with Woot. I can go a million other places on the internet for a site that looks like Woot.

Thanks @davebug, for the explanation, but if you keep crowding the pages and stopping the simplicity that was Woot, all of these vendors whose wares you are trying to hawk will be disappointed in the results and you may not have the chance to rep them again. You may be morping into a site with lots of deals, but you are morphing out of what made Woot Woot... Oh and by the way you have a birthday coming up real soon if you still celebrate those in your new incarnation...

I have been an Amazon Prime member for about four years, and I love Amazon. It is just right for what it is.

I had been a Woot member for about two years, and I used to love it. It used to be just right for what it was.

I have tried to "get used" to the new Woot. I have faithfully accessed the Woot page, as I always have, every day. I have sent Woot my feedback with my feelings, and I thought I'd add them to the discussion.

Add me to the long list of those who believe the new Woot interface is too busy. It lacks the easy simplicity that made the former Woot such a pleasure. The recent attempt at a Woot-off was more like a sale of stuff nobody wanted.

No longer is Woot fun or enjoyable. Gone is the delightful uniqueness. It is now just another site that sells stuff.

Oh well. Nothing good lasts forever; that's why we have memories, I guess.

Thanks, Woot, for the memories.

DaveD1420 wrote:Too much on the page. It looks like AOL threw up.

Exactly! What a concise and accurate description!

I really dislike the new site and have noticed a decline in my visits. Having a second step to see the specs and information is time consuming and irritating and this is for each of the areas. I feel like it is a big ad site now and rarely has real deals. Too commercialized. I almost don't consider it as my one day sales site and have forgot to visit it frequently recently while going to 1saleaday and Dailysteals. Woot used to be my first look, now it is my might look.

I looked at my purchase history just now and my last purchase was in February. I used to have almost no months without a purchase and many months have several purchases. The only thing I like better is that all my order histories are on one page so I don't have to go to Sales, kids, deals, woot main to find my history.

I had 40 purchase in the 12 months before my last purchase. In the 5 months since, ZERO. To me that means, one, the deals are poor, or two, the deals are too hard to read or research so I don't bother.

To keep Woot the site great, you must have good deals every day whether you want it or not, you must have the deal stand out, not all the other ads. I look at the other deals/ads but they are bystanders because I knew the real deal was the main deal/deals (kids,sale, www). This is not the case anymore.

I hope you go back to fewer, real, deals and ads for "other" deals on the side.

The only thing I got recently was a coupon for free popcorn at Regal. I found it on Woot, but it wasn't a Woot "deal".

I just realized the words Woot and deal don't go together in my brain anymore. Fix that and maybe I'll be back, else... I'll keep hoping and visit when I can remember but it won't be the first thing I look at when I get on the computer in the morning like it was. Still waiting for a real deal that I am interested in.

I'd like it better if the main page loaded the main product with description right off the bat and you could stick the woot plus crap on a sidebar on the right.

dave bug wrote:Along with that, I want to be clear: We're moving forward, not back. There's no 'old' site for us to return to. We're here, in this new place, and we'll keep evolving and growing it, but there is no thought or possibility of moving back.

With all due respect, feedback would indicate that the overwhelming majority of your most loyal customers hate the new site. Have you ever considered learning from your mistakes? Or is there no thought or possibility of that either?

dave bug wrote:I want to be clear: We're moving forward, not back. There's no 'old' site for us to return to. We're here, in this new place, and we'll keep evolving and growing it, but there is no thought or possibility of moving back.

So once we figured out we wanted to get more of the deals we were finding out there, we had to figure out how to best get the deals out and viewable to everyone. This is where it gets subjective. It's totally fair to say our execution is busy, or cluttered, or that in adding them at the size and place we did it hides or removes too many other things. That feedback is welcome, and listened to.

While I understand that you're attempting to move forward and not back with your design, you are not helping yourselves by seeming to not listen to feedback from the customers. You list members biggest gripes with the site, but don't list any ways of rectifying it.

Usually, when someone rolls out new versions of a website, that someone attempts to answer a question. Usually, it tends to be one of a monetary value. In this case, you're seeing your customer base come out against the new look, and I believe you are losing numbers in traffic. (If I'm wrong, you'll have to prove it, as I sent a beta message earlier with the Quantcast stats.)

So if you have actual responses to our issues, please share what you're planning to do next. Share with us some of your design ideas, and let the people who use your site help you in guiding something that allows for a compromise between your design team and the people who actually are using your site.

At the moment, those who came to Woot from before feel rejected, alienated, and turned away by a site that at one time felt less like a deal site, and more like someplace that cared about the individuality of the customer base it catered to.

Get your act together, and gain the answer that I hope you were looking for, and then look at your direction.

My answer, for one, is that while change is good, this change was poorly planned, poorly executed, and you're going to lose viewers and customers because of it.

dave bug wrote:This looks like a good post to use for a little review of what we're up to and why we made some of the decisions we made. Let me see here...

First, I do want to emphasize that we're constantly tweaking (and hopefully improving) things, and you'll keep seeing little changes and updates here and there. (For instance, Woot Plus events now have discussion threads!) It may not move as fast as some (even us) would like to see, but we're doing everything we can to improve the experience for you all.

Along with that, I want to be clear: We're moving forward, not back. There's no 'old' site for us to return to. We're here, in this new place, and we'll keep evolving and growing it, but there is no thought or possibility of moving back.

On to some thoughts on what we're doing and why:
The bulk of the reasons for a lot of the changes you and others mention (features feeling hidden, the design seeming busy, etc.) is connected to our expansion into Woot Plus events.

Here's the short and sweet of Woot Plus events: We have more than one good deal a day per product category.

We obviously are (and will continue to) expand into new categories (hi sport.woot!), and that's a good way for us to get you all new deals, but as much as that might go, it still leaves us turning back other deals - deals that are smaller quantities, or more niche items, or even just the second best deal out there in a given category. That sucks, for you all who might've wanted that stuff and for the vendors who were hoping to get their stuff out there.

So once we figured out we wanted to get more of the deals we were finding out there, we had to figure out how to best get the deals out and viewable to everyone. This is where it gets subjective. It's totally fair to say our execution is busy, or cluttered, or that in adding them at the size and place we did it hides or removes too many other things. That feedback is welcome, and listened to.

That said, we do have some pretty tough constraints - again, there's no point in us going to the effort of finding, buying, and putting together events if no one sees them. And honestly, anything new that is not in some way directly on our home page basically doesn't get seen. That led us to where we are now - basically a gateway style home page that lets people know all the stuff going on on that site, and an easy way to get to the other sites. Again, it's fair to say you'd have done it differently, or disagree with our prioritization or visual implementation. In fact, we will continue to look closely at how everything is or isn't working, trying out different sizes and placements, and thinking up new solutions.

It is definitely a compromise to not have our whole write-up on the home page. It's painful to think there are people who might've read it but now don't bother clicking through. But it's also painful to think of people missing good deals on stuff they'd like because they don't get introduced to it on the home page. Design is all about compromise, and our goal with the 'gateway' approach is to allow a little bit of everything to surface, rather than showing all of some things and completely burying others. Maybe we're too heavily weighted one way and too light another, and we'll keep an eye on that, but I still feel this was the right approach, and we'll move forward from here to make it better.

Of course, we can't satisfy everyone with any decision we've made or will be making. Some of you will say you can go elsewhere to get more deals, and that it's not Woot's role to have every good deal out there. I think that's fair, and there are some fairly easy ways to skip around to the daily deals and bypass the home pages if you'd like. (For instance, clicking the product photos in the navigation hovers will take you right to those sales, with full write-ups, etc.) Heck, you can figure out what's for sale on Woot without coming to the site at all - on Facebook, Twitter, one of many apps out there, RSS feeds, etc. If you're a developer type and don't like any of the ways to browse through what we're selling, make your own! We will keep working on building the best experience we can within the opportunities and constraints we have, and we hope that you'll come along with us, and keep telling us what you like and what you don't like about what we're trying.

Bull

redesign dropped on may 27...

pha9992001 wrote:redesign dropped on may 27...

Dang. Those were very interesting. Very. Of course, I just spent 30 minutes on the Alexa site looking at all the data, which was even more interesting. Interesting times, these are.

Thanks for posting that. I saved off the images, for a nice snapshot of the day, so to speak.

dave bug wrote:This looks like a good post to use for a little review of what we're up to and why we made some of the decisions we made. Let me see here...

First, I do want to emphasize that we're constantly tweaking (and hopefully improving) things, and you'll keep seeing little changes and updates here and there. (For instance, Woot Plus events now have discussion threads!) It may not move as fast as some (even us) would like to see, but we're doing everything we can to improve the experience for you all.

Along with that, I want to be clear: We're moving forward, not back. There's no 'old' site for us to return to. We're here, in this new place, and we'll keep evolving and growing it, but there is no thought or possibility of moving back.

On to some thoughts on what we're doing and why:
The bulk of the reasons for a lot of the changes you and others mention (features feeling hidden, the design seeming busy, etc.) is connected to our expansion into Woot Plus events.

Here's the short and sweet of Woot Plus events: We have more than one good deal a day per product category.

We obviously are (and will continue to) expand into new categories (hi sport.woot!), and that's a good way for us to get you all new deals, but as much as that might go, it still leaves us turning back other deals - deals that are smaller quantities, or more niche items, or even just the second best deal out there in a given category. That sucks, for you all who might've wanted that stuff and for the vendors who were hoping to get their stuff out there.

So once we figured out we wanted to get more of the deals we were finding out there, we had to figure out how to best get the deals out and viewable to everyone. This is where it gets subjective. It's totally fair to say our execution is busy, or cluttered, or that in adding them at the size and place we did it hides or removes too many other things. That feedback is welcome, and listened to.

That said, we do have some pretty tough constraints - again, there's no point in us going to the effort of finding, buying, and putting together events if no one sees them. And honestly, anything new that is not in some way directly on our home page basically doesn't get seen. That led us to where we are now - basically a gateway style home page that lets people know all the stuff going on on that site, and an easy way to get to the other sites. Again, it's fair to say you'd have done it differently, or disagree with our prioritization or visual implementation. In fact, we will continue to look closely at how everything is or isn't working, trying out different sizes and placements, and thinking up new solutions.

It is definitely a compromise to not have our whole write-up on the home page. It's painful to think there are people who might've read it but now don't bother clicking through. But it's also painful to think of people missing good deals on stuff they'd like because they don't get introduced to it on the home page. Design is all about compromise, and our goal with the 'gateway' approach is to allow a little bit of everything to surface, rather than showing all of some things and completely burying others. Maybe we're too heavily weighted one way and too light another, and we'll keep an eye on that, but I still feel this was the right approach, and we'll move forward from here to make it better.

Of course, we can't satisfy everyone with any decision we've made or will be making. Some of you will say you can go elsewhere to get more deals, and that it's not Woot's role to have every good deal out there. I think that's fair, and there are some fairly easy ways to skip around to the daily deals and bypass the home pages if you'd like. (For instance, clicking the product photos in the navigation hovers will take you right to those sales, with full write-ups, etc.) Heck, you can figure out what's for sale on Woot without coming to the site at all - on Facebook, Twitter, one of many apps out there, RSS feeds, etc. If you're a developer type and don't like any of the ways to browse through what we're selling, make your own! We will keep working on building the best experience we can within the opportunities and constraints we have, and we hope that you'll come along with us, and keep telling us what you like and what you don't like about what we're trying.

Forward, Light Brigade!

beavis2012 wrote:With all due respect, feedback would indicate that the overwhelming majority of your most loyal customers hate the new site. Have you ever considered learning from your mistakes? Or is there no thought or possibility of that either?

Seems like the same as when Woot 2.0 launched years ago. IIRC, they didn't listen too much then as well. Just fixing the bugs (seems like they also never heard of Beta testing to a small audience before rolling it out either!) then as now.


However, that said, I think it's funny that everyone loves the all day free shipping after buying the first order for $5 shipping. But then complains how the prices are higher.

Hello! They have to include the shipping somewhere. Ergo, it translates to smaller "deals" overall.


And I also have to laugh at the Woot Plus deals that stay "Sold Out" for days (Gunnar Optics). What happened to replacing it with a new deal?

Now I have to use another post for my original reason for coming here.

Okay, now for the reason I originally came here ....


Has anyone else noticed that their shipping address periodically changes after they click on the final buy button?

I think I've had at least 2 (if not 3) orders change from the shipping address I put in (using the default and alternate addresses now available).

I've submitted it today via the beta feedback, but wanted to see if anyone else had the problem.

I've had two orders change from my requested alternate address back to my default address (and one vice-versa).

Okay, there's some good, some bad.

The top navigation bar is good, but... under the ad? It doesn't work very well... and why is there ads for stuff outside Woot! here?!?

The item I want to buy is no longer fully spec'ed out on the front page! I gotta click to get the goods on the goods? Woot the Future?!? Works for shirt.woot but not everywhere else.

The changes to the site cause too many crashes on my DolphinHD Mobil browser for android. Also too much flashy stuff, takes too long to load and it is unnecessary.

MarkDaSpark wrote:Has anyone else noticed that their shipping address periodically changes after they click on the final buy button?

I think I've had at least 2 (if not 3) orders change from the shipping address I put in (using the default and alternate addresses now available).

That's an undocumented feature. It's part of the future. Embrace it.

So the "one deal a day," (which woot managed to get away with multiple deals by having multiple categories) is now no longer the mantra with Woot Plus.

How about a further compromise? The "home page" for each category goes back to the write-up and product description-- but instead of the links to the other woot sites (shirt, wine, etc.) and their product images... How about putting the Woot Plus products there thumbnail-style? If they're supposed to go with the woot category, then they're in full view without overtaking the main deal of the day. The vendors get their products viewed, your writers get their work viewed, and you go way easier on your customers' eyes. Fewer navigation clicks, easier navigation, less brain explodey (medical term).

padgie wrote: -- but instead of the links to the other woot sites (shirt, wine, etc.) and their product images... How about putting the Woot Plus products there thumbnail-style?

I should clarify--not replacing the top tabs, but the images on the right side of the product page that leads you to the other woot home pages.