Your ideas for the future of the seconds sale?
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2020 1:34 pm
I really enjoyed being able to participate in the seconds sale and was able to get in two orders for 4 total knives that I wanted. Sure, things could have gone smoother, but given the extremely limited time they had to throw this together I am shocked it went as well as it did. I have spent my career in technology groups for large organizations and things that seem small and easy can take weeks, months, or years. That's the nature of the beast. I'm honestly impressed with how they pulled this off! In my eyes it was a success and I hope Spyderco feels the same way and is able to ignore the hate. I truly appreciate the work they put in to making this a reality for all of us who could never attend in person. :D
That said, I wonder what is going to happen going forward? Has the plandemic ushered in a "new normal"? Will there be constant restrictions on travel and gatherings? It seems like online may be the way to go moving ahead.
Here are some suggestions I have for going forward. Interested to hear what suggestions the rest of you have as well!
1. Take what is left of the "seconds" inventory and create a "seconds/thirds" section at the SFO and limit it to one (or two or three or whatever depending on the quantity available) per person per day, with each knife priced based on the severity of it's particular flaw. The buyer then knows exactly what they are getting. This will allow visitors to the shop to get in on the action year round. If there is concern about locals coming in daily and buying them all to resell, then implement further monthly quantity limit restrictions as needed.
2. Bifurcate the incoming "flawed" knives from each new run into "seconds" (minor flaws) and "thirds" (serious flaws, but still safe to use).
3. If there are a minimum number (say 25, 50, 100, whatever?) of "seconds" with minor flaws from the run of a single model (one single sku #), place them in a box and label them to hold for the annual online seconds sale. The "thirds" from this run would be priced individually and placed into the "seconds/thirds" section of the SFO for immediate sale. If there are less than the minimum number of minorly flawed "seconds" from a run, then put them all into the "seconds/thirds" section of the SFO for immediate sale, again, priced based on the particular flaw of each knife.
4. Hold an annual "online seconds sale" each year with the batches of 25+ (or 50+ or 100+ or whatever number) minorly flawed "seconds" of each model with a single price for each model like was done this year. This will limit the number of individual model webpages needed to be created, make it easier on packagers/shippers to find the knives to pack, etc.
5. Drop ALL of the models at the same time rather than wait (assuming they can get the server capacity beefed up majorly by next year's sale). From a customer experience, having to wait around checking constantly to see when new ones are released, then having minutes or seconds to try to buy them is a poor way to do it. I missed out on the K390 Endura because I was out living life. I can set aside an hour to be online for a drop, but having to refresh every 5 seconds for three days straight to *maybe* get to buy a model I want is not the way to go. Plus having shipping on multiple orders, etc. Plus people who refreshed all day for two days waiting for a model that never came. Maybe they only had the budget for one and were hoping for a particular model. All poor user experiences. Dropping everything at once with cart protection and bot elimination prior (see below) to adding knives to the cart plus limiting knives to one per model and one order per customer should give a much better experience to all of the real customers out there who want to participate. If they release models in random batches, it frustrates people who have to sit around all day waiting, and it allows people to program their bots efficiently now since they now can see how the sale is being run. They program a bot to wait for model name or number to appear on the website, and it swoops in and buys them all up. Dropping them all at once without showing what the website will be like or giving away the authentication mechanisms should mean that people won't be able to program bots ahead of time.
6. I'm not sure if there is a way to have a "cart hold" of say 1 hour max or something that will prevent an item from selling out once it is in your cart (but will be released back into inventory after an hour if not purchased), but that would eliminate a lot of the issues in my opinion. You would be able to take your time (relatively) and add each model you want to your cart (assuming they haven't all been added to other carts) and get above that FREE shipping threshold and get your one order in without being stressed about the stuff in your cart being sold out. Typically I don't care for this approach on dealer exclusive drops, but I think it is sorely needed in this kind of sale.
7. Limit it to one of each model per person (only allow one of each to be added to the cart assuming cart protection is implemented) and only one order per person for the entirety of the sale. This would allow more people to get in on the sale and help reduce resellers scooping everything up.
8. If they can add an interactive CAPTCHA (puzzle slider CAPTCHA maybe?) that must be completed prior to adding each item (and not let which type of CAPTHA they are using be known prior to the sale to prevent people trying to program bots to defeat this specific type) to the cart, it could potentially eliminate bots from even adding items to carts, let alone being able to purchase the knives.
Can't wait to see what is in store for next year, and I hope to be able to make it out there at some point in my life to see the factory in person!
That said, I wonder what is going to happen going forward? Has the plandemic ushered in a "new normal"? Will there be constant restrictions on travel and gatherings? It seems like online may be the way to go moving ahead.
Here are some suggestions I have for going forward. Interested to hear what suggestions the rest of you have as well!
1. Take what is left of the "seconds" inventory and create a "seconds/thirds" section at the SFO and limit it to one (or two or three or whatever depending on the quantity available) per person per day, with each knife priced based on the severity of it's particular flaw. The buyer then knows exactly what they are getting. This will allow visitors to the shop to get in on the action year round. If there is concern about locals coming in daily and buying them all to resell, then implement further monthly quantity limit restrictions as needed.
2. Bifurcate the incoming "flawed" knives from each new run into "seconds" (minor flaws) and "thirds" (serious flaws, but still safe to use).
3. If there are a minimum number (say 25, 50, 100, whatever?) of "seconds" with minor flaws from the run of a single model (one single sku #), place them in a box and label them to hold for the annual online seconds sale. The "thirds" from this run would be priced individually and placed into the "seconds/thirds" section of the SFO for immediate sale. If there are less than the minimum number of minorly flawed "seconds" from a run, then put them all into the "seconds/thirds" section of the SFO for immediate sale, again, priced based on the particular flaw of each knife.
4. Hold an annual "online seconds sale" each year with the batches of 25+ (or 50+ or 100+ or whatever number) minorly flawed "seconds" of each model with a single price for each model like was done this year. This will limit the number of individual model webpages needed to be created, make it easier on packagers/shippers to find the knives to pack, etc.
5. Drop ALL of the models at the same time rather than wait (assuming they can get the server capacity beefed up majorly by next year's sale). From a customer experience, having to wait around checking constantly to see when new ones are released, then having minutes or seconds to try to buy them is a poor way to do it. I missed out on the K390 Endura because I was out living life. I can set aside an hour to be online for a drop, but having to refresh every 5 seconds for three days straight to *maybe* get to buy a model I want is not the way to go. Plus having shipping on multiple orders, etc. Plus people who refreshed all day for two days waiting for a model that never came. Maybe they only had the budget for one and were hoping for a particular model. All poor user experiences. Dropping everything at once with cart protection and bot elimination prior (see below) to adding knives to the cart plus limiting knives to one per model and one order per customer should give a much better experience to all of the real customers out there who want to participate. If they release models in random batches, it frustrates people who have to sit around all day waiting, and it allows people to program their bots efficiently now since they now can see how the sale is being run. They program a bot to wait for model name or number to appear on the website, and it swoops in and buys them all up. Dropping them all at once without showing what the website will be like or giving away the authentication mechanisms should mean that people won't be able to program bots ahead of time.
6. I'm not sure if there is a way to have a "cart hold" of say 1 hour max or something that will prevent an item from selling out once it is in your cart (but will be released back into inventory after an hour if not purchased), but that would eliminate a lot of the issues in my opinion. You would be able to take your time (relatively) and add each model you want to your cart (assuming they haven't all been added to other carts) and get above that FREE shipping threshold and get your one order in without being stressed about the stuff in your cart being sold out. Typically I don't care for this approach on dealer exclusive drops, but I think it is sorely needed in this kind of sale.
7. Limit it to one of each model per person (only allow one of each to be added to the cart assuming cart protection is implemented) and only one order per person for the entirety of the sale. This would allow more people to get in on the sale and help reduce resellers scooping everything up.
8. If they can add an interactive CAPTCHA (puzzle slider CAPTCHA maybe?) that must be completed prior to adding each item (and not let which type of CAPTHA they are using be known prior to the sale to prevent people trying to program bots to defeat this specific type) to the cart, it could potentially eliminate bots from even adding items to carts, let alone being able to purchase the knives.
Can't wait to see what is in store for next year, and I hope to be able to make it out there at some point in my life to see the factory in person!