www.QuiBids.comJune 2013Vol. 2, No. 2
QuiBids Quarterly
Read the five profiles of QuiBids customers on pages 2-3
QuiBids raises funds for tornado relief
FILL ‘ER UP!
QuiBids merchan-diser Jeremy Ussery fills Jacob Curley’s water bottle at the com-pany’s co-sponsored water stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Marathon. Curley fin-ished the marathon in 3:29:50.
PHOTO BY ERIK GAUSE
Shortly after severe weather leveled homes and displaced people around central Okla-
homa in May, more than 200 QuiBids customers raised $3,543.22 by bid-ding in four specifically designated charity auctions QuiBids created and promoted to support relief efforts. Soon after, the money was donated to the American Red Cross of Central and Western Oklahoma.
While QuiBids’ offices are located
in northwest Oklahoma City, seven employees commute there from Moore, which bore the worst of May’s severe weather. The company’s con-nection to the suburb is direct and un-fortunately one of those employees’ home was among the many reduced to rubble. He and his family were un-harmed, and our company — already grieving the news of loss among our neighbors — set about helping the people of Moore get back on their feet.
In addition to the charity auc-tions, the leadership at our email service provider iContact (which is headquartered in North Carolina) generously volunteered to match its employees’ giving up to $2,500. And aside from taking care of QuiBids’ displaced employee and his family, QuiBids will donate additional funds to those affected by the tornado to make sure their needs are being pro-vided for in this difficult time.
QUIBIDSCUSTOMER
PROFILES
June 2013www.QuiBids.com2 June 2013 3www.QuiBids.com
Why do customers spend time on QuiBids?
According to an inter-nal questionnaire of 1,000 QuiBids custom-
ers, we found nearly one half of them first heard about our site from one of our TV commercials, which emphasize the opportunity to win an auction at an extraordi-nary bargain. And while the lure of a deal attracts customers to QuiBids in the first place, it does not completely explain why many continue to shop and bid on the site after that novelty wears off, nor does it totally capture Qui-Bids’ appeal, which is as multifac-eted as the services it offers.
So QuiBids set to work ana-lyzing this and determined five categories of appeal, based on the survey results and our own observations on customer behav-ior. QuiBids saw these behaviors on the site and where employees interact with customers, includ-ing social media and customer-support platforms, and have used them to classify customers into these five profiles.
Make no mistake, the end goal of every QuiBidder is a big
bargain. Many customers are sin-gularly focused on maximum savings
as the end, though, and build strategies toward it like bidding very aggressively or bidding based on their own carefully sculpted budgets. These are our most
hardcore bidders, and they often go out of their way to earn free
Voucher Bids to stretch their money farther.
Deal-seeker
In a survey asking our customers what type of leisure activity they prefer, the largest
faction of respondents indicated they would play cards or a board game
with family or friends. These are the customers who enjoy QuiBids as a
social outlet. They compete head-to-head in auctions, share tips and strategy on social media, and
congratulate one another on big wins.
Socialite
About 20% of customers surveyed indicated they have
won six or more auctions in the last month. QuiBids auctions — espe-cially auctions for high-end consumer electronics — can get really competi-tive, lasting for hours and pulling in dozens of bidders. You have to be really involved to be a gamer and still win auctions consistently, so
that means participating in a lot of auctions.
Gamer
Nearly half of the custom-ers surveyed said the most
appealing feature of QuiBids is the feeling they get after winning
an auction, and respondents selected “thrilled,” “relieved” and “proud” as the most common words to describe this feeling. It is not uncommon for customers to post photos and vid-
eos of their wins to our social profiles. Call it virtual
bragging.
Back-Patter
While there is a select core of customers who may win less than six auctions a month, some may not win at all. Why do they
continue to spend time on QuiBids? One of the most common descrip-
tive acts from customers on QuiBids is that it is “fun” which explains why they stay. It’s not all about
winning, it is a worthwhile pastime.
Casual Shopper Top 10 cities of active QuiBids customers• NYC: 2,890• Los Angeles: 1,989• Chicago: 1,781• Houston: 1,735• Toronto: 1,674
• Atlanta: 1,238• Philadelphia: 1,065• San Diego: 982• Orlando: 975• Dallas: 946
Source: From the QuiBids Facebook page as of June 7, 2013
June 20134 June 2013www.QuiBids.com 5
Drink up, runners!QuiBids in the Community
www.QuiBids.com
After two years on a waiting list, QuiBids finally
got the honor of sponsor-ing a water stop at the 2013 Oklahoma City National Memorial Marathon in late April.
Situated at about mile 20, just around the corner from Classen Curve, Qui-Bids employees partnered with employees from a local Walgreens store to hand out pretzels, Pow-erade and water to runners who, by that point, were really tired.
They played loud music, cheered on participants and generally enjoyed the beautiful weather and the opportunity to contribute to one of the communi-ty’s largest, most fun and meaningful annual events.
PHOTOS BY ERIK GAUSE
A line of QuiBids employees root for runners as they wait to hand off cups of water at the OKC Memorial Marathon. More than 3,000 runners passed through the water stop on their way to the finish line.
QuiBids employ-ees Kristi McMullen (left), Sara Howell (middle) and Ziggie Oleru prepare shopping carts for the Food Bank clients.
Fighting hunger
PHOTOS BY ERIK GAUSE UNLESS OTHERWISE INDICATED
Merchandiser Chelsea House (left) and Compliance Manager John Le (middle) load groceries into a truck.
Ryan (left) and Adam Gentzler cruise through the water stop en route to a 3:33:48 finish.
QuiBids anima-tor Chuck Carson, his wife, and his daugh-ter offer pretzels to runners.
QuiBids employees decorate shopping carts.
Customer Support
Manager Erik Gause
wrangles carts after
loading a family’s van with grocer-
ies. (Photo by John Le)
In March, QuiBids added an-other chapter to its ongoing work with the Regional Food
Bank of Oklahoma, which works to help the 21.4% of Oklahomans who experienced food insecurity in 2012.
Coordinators at the Food Bank’s Food For Kids program put QuiBids in touch with three Oklahoma City-
area families they deemed deserving of aid, and the company got to spon-sor a grocery-shopping trip to a local Homeland for them.
QuiBidders played with their kids, loaded their groceries up in their cars, and there were a few hugs and tears when everybody had to go home.
June 2013www.QuiBids.com6
4 NE 10th St., Ste. 242Oklahoma City, OK 73104
PLACEPOSTAGE
HERE
European expansion continues
Although QuiBids became popular in Australia and
Canada quickly — much the same way it did when we debuted the site domesti-cally in 2009 — ex-pansion across Eu-rope has been much slower and steadier. But that is often the case when you want to do something right the first time.
In May, QuiBids began hosting auctions in It-aly. We did the same in Aus-tria the month before, and we
have operated in the United Kingdom, France and Ger-many prior to that. There are several advantages an online
business has over a brick-and-mortar when it comes to international ex-pansion, but even websites encoun-ter obstacles that require compre-hensive solutions — and we had our share. Our team ar-chitected a plan to
meet those challenges head-on, and that is what we did.
You cannot simply auc-
tion the same products in every other country that you do in the United States, so the QuiBids.com European operations opened a small office in Malta to partner directly with European ven-dors and manufacturers. The QuiBids auction model is a little complicated even when you are learning in your na-tive language, so we hired native speakers to translate the site’s explanatory sec-tions and provide support to new customers.
We want to see happy QuiBids customers all across the globe, and continued ex-
Get in touch with QuiBids!
www.QuiBids.com(405) 253-38834 NE 10th St., Ste. 242Oklahoma City, OK 73104
Jill MerrittPublic Relations [email protected]
pansion across Europe is our most immediate goal.
MATT BECKHAM
Letter from the CEO