Do We Really Need Another Local Deals Site?

Woot Says, Yes

From time to time I get emails from Woot.com, the brilliant originator of the one-deal-per-day online phenomenon. The typical Woot email contains their signature tongue-in-cheek copywriting and news from the Woot universe.

Until recently, this universe included: the original Woot.com, Shirt.Woot, Wine.Woot, Kids.Woot, and Deals.Woot. An email sent to “Extra Special Deals.Woot Users” on Friday (Oct. 7, 2011) announced a new member to the family of Woot sites: Local.Woot.

Introducing Local.Woot

Similar to other local deals sites (like Groupon or LivingSocial), Local.Woot will “focus on retailers who sell vouchers by local area,” the email said. The about section of the site goes into further detail, explaining Local.Woot as a kind of aggregate of other local deals sites:

Visit here every day and you’ll find all the current Living Social, Amazon, Groupon, etc. deals for your area.

By aggregating deals from these other organizations, Local.Woot allows users to have a broader view of the deal scene in their city. Similar to Deals.Woot, users vote for the local deals they like and leave comments to help other Wooters. The most popular deals make their way to the front of the “Top” section, and the newest deals show up in the “Fresh” section.

Is the Innovative Woot Behind the Curve?

Despite the initial positive buzz around the group deals system, recent events are casting doubt on its sustainability. While it’s great for consumers to find coupons for ridiculous discounts, many business owners are not pleased with the system — for various reasons.

The announcement of the death of Facebook’s deal system and the troubles that the Groupon IPO is having adds further evidence to the decline of the market.

Entering so late in the game, Local.Woot may be a wonderful idea that just came a little bit too late. Will the aggregating system help Local.Woot weather the tumultuous world of local deals? Or will it be another “also ran”? Only time will tell, but in the meantime feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.