A good ecommerce site sets itself apart from the rest. It’s memorable. It has something special about it. For example, woot.com, the hugely popular online retailer, has a very clever gimmick of selling only one product per day, at an incredible price, and selling that product until midnight or until it runs out of stock, whichever comes first. Sometimes their product of the day is a “Bag o’ Crap” — a mystery assortment of items for $1 that for some lucky customers may include high ticket items like a 61″ TV. Our client SteveSpanglerScience.com has a gimmick of podcasting a video every week of a very entertaining science experiment conducted by science toy inventor Steve Spangler and televised that Monday on NBC Channel 9 News in Denver. Develop a gimmick that you can “own”. Be a “purple cow.” It could be as simple as an irreverrent style to the copy on your site (like woot.com). Here’s an example of the woot.com style that you can’t help but love:

We’re talking Led Zeppelin quality at a Def Leppard price. Or maybe more like Page & Plant quality, because the receiver lacks EQ, tone controls, and an AM/FM tuner. But hey, one man’s necessities are another man’s frills, and we’re sure there are enough cheapskates in the latter category who will gladly take a system like this for $75 without asking a lot of pesky questions.

Got any other examples of ecommerce sites with a great gimmick? Or do you have a gimmick yourself that’s been successful?