I was a bit guarded and perhaps skeptical of Jellyfish when they initially launched, and had a good dialog with their CEO via e-mail which gave me a more positive view of what they’re trying to achieve.
I hadn’t heard much about them lately, and I’ve been curious to know how their service has been growing. I don’t know the answer to that yet, but they hit the news again with their launch of the Smack Shopping Deal of the Day.
Basically it’s a reverse auction where they have a limited quantity of an item to sell and the price drops on it over time and users can buy whenever they feel they need to in order to get one. If the users all can hold off, the price drops lower and lower, but then you risk missing out if you don’t buy in time. They also have forums involved so that the users can discuss the Smack and try and plan strategies or talk each other into or out of buying.
It looks like a fun game, as well as a fascinating study in psychology. It also does something which a friend brought up to me recently, it harnesses the power of buying in numbers to get a good price. The web doesn’t do enough of this, so this is one of the first shopping applications I’ve seen that takes advantage of that. Some may compare this to Woot, and it has some similarities, but it seems like a more strategic buying process that can end up with a better deal.