Our first Rush is scheduled!

Hi everyone – per my Friday post, we’re getting ready to launch our new Rush functionality this week. 

Our first Rush is in Antiques and is scheduled for Thursday, November 4th at 9:00AM PDT - 1:00PM PDT.  Those of you who are signed up to sell items in the Antiques Rush will receive an email notification on Monday that includes the date and time and a link to promote the Antiques Rush on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have general questions on Rushes please consult our Rush FAQ.  For more specific questions regarding our first Rush we’ve tried to anticipate the most likely ones below. 

Why did you pick this time for the first Rush?  We wanted to capture the American lunch hour.  This time allows us to get the east and west coast when they are shopping and eating at their desks.  We recognize this time will not work for everyone including some participating sellers.  There’s really no time that will work for everyone regrettably.  We’ll experiment with different start times and Rush durations to find what works best. 

Why Antiques first?  We had to start somewhere.  And the top of the alphabet seemed like a decent enough way to get things rolling; though we aren’t planning on going alphabetically moving forward.  We’ll choose a variety to start so we can see what works well and what doesn’t.

When are the next Rushes?  You can see Rush schedule on the main Rush page.  Right now we have scheduled the first three and will reveal the dates and times for the other Rushes soon.  We are planning on having one Rush each weekday, but might add more in the future.

Wait, I missed something.  What’s a Rush?  Totally fair question – we all get busy.  We have a Rush FAQ just for you. 

How will I find out when a Rush has begun?  Lots of ways.  Sellers will get an email saying the Rush has started with a direct link to the Rush event page once the Rush begins.  Select buyers will also receive an email.  There will be a number of places on the site itself to gain access to each Rush.  The main Rush page will provide a link to the Rush event when it begins as will the homepage.  Also, a site-wide notification will provide a link to anyone who happens to be on the site when a Rush is occurring.  Lastly, we’ll be promoting the Rush on Twitter and via Facebook events.  And I suspect (hope!) many of you will as well.

What will a Rush look like?  A Rush will look a lot like a booth page, but not be limited to one seller’s items.  A multi-user chat with our new private message capability will live at the top of the page.  Below the chat will be a fairly familiar looking layout of various products with some tools along the left side of the page to allow buyers to narrow down their results.  Additionally, buyers will be able to sort Rush items in the order they see fit.  

Buyers will be able to initiate a private chat with each seller right from any item they are looking at (we have a handy new pop-up for each item).  Many of you noticed that we rolled a number of these new chat features out already to the booth pages.  I apologize for not communicating this to you as it happened.  We've been moving fast to get Rushes out and in your hands.  There are a few other bells and whistles as well of course, but we don’t want to spoil all the fun.  Overall the page will look very familiar to most of you I suspect. 

What’s next for Rushes?  That’s hard to say at this point.  We have no shortage of ideas of course, but are holding any firm plans until we have real data and feedback.  In addition to monitoring the Rushes as they happen we’ll also be collecting feedback from all of you.  We’re conducting usability tests of Rushes as they happen to capture feedback from users who have never been to Bonanza before (let alone a Rush).  We’ll rely on this feedback a great deal to tune the buyer experience.

We’re really looking forward to holding our first Rush! 

-    Alex