SDCB release outcome and auction

We have released 140 Sequential Discovery Cubed Box puzzles on 18th July and the puzzle was sold out in a very short time. The image below is the screenshot of the admin page on our shop that is captured about 2 minutes after the release of the puzzle.

As you can see, 118 customers have already finished purchasing. 139 visitors are about to check out and 152 visitors put puzzle(s) in their cart. Many of them must have experienced that the puzzle they put in their cart disappeared because only person who finished the entire transaction process before stock ran out can purchase products. Maximum page views reached 1,215 and it was our site record.

The following table shows how many customers completed their orders using what payment methods every minute after the release.

Overall, PayPal was the preferred payment method, but those who used credit cards were able to complete their transactions more quickly. Of the ten fastest customers, all but one used a credit card. If the 140 puzzles had been released in two batches, one for 70 puzzles and one for 70 puzzles, those who could not complete the purchase procedure within two minutes might not have had a chance at all. I assume completing the purchase process in less than a minute requires a certain amount of IT skills and knowledge. Many of our fastest customers may have logged into our web shop beforehand and had their customers' details and payment details saved in their browser. Some of them may be using browser automation tools to reduce the time needed to make a purchase.

The following table shows the addresses of our customers, sorted by country.

Amazingly, more than 60% of the puzzles were purchased by customers who live in the United States. We once experimented a later release time in our time zone, but the portion of the US customers was rather increased at the time. Maybe we just have more customers in the US.

Among 140, 39 customers are new to our website, and we think that it is quite a large portion considering the high retail price of the puzzle.

We have cancelled a few orders because of the following reasons:

• Purchases made by the same household members.
• Purchases made using false identities.

We believe that it is not reasonable to sell more than one puzzle to people in the same household, as many visitors will miss out on the chance to buy, so we will stick to this policy whenever we release a puzzle that might attract strong attention. All cancelled puzzles were already allocated to customers who missed their chance.

As we have mentioned on our newsletter before, two second grade Sequential Discovery Cubed Box puzzles were put up on auction. A half of the sales of the auction puzzles will be donated to a volunteer organization that is relatively close to our location to help people who are in need. Bidding on the auctions by the customers who already purchased the regular version of the puzzle is also welcome since our intention this time is to raise some money for charity.

Juno