How to buy on KOA? (live on the auction)

3 min

How to buy on KOA? (Live on the auction)

Before you are able to buy, you need a KOA license to be installed on your computer. To request a KOA license, click here. After the KOA license has been installed, you will be able to log in. Make sure that you have a headset with a USB connector. Other connectors are NOT compatible with KOA and that means that the auctioneer will not be able to hear you when necessary. Look at the picture below to see the headset with USB connector:

Headset KOA Headset with USB connector

Make sure your internet connection is stable

If your internet is not stable, you could lose connection during the auction. If you lose connection, you will have the risk of missing a product which you wanted to buy. So make sure that you have an internet connection that is stable. We advise using a wired internet connection instead of wireless.

The auction starts! What now?

When you are logged in to KOA and the auction starts at 6 am, you will hear the auctioneer starting to talk and the clock will start running. The red dot will follow the circle from a high to a lower price. The longer you wait, the lower the price will be. The moment you decide to buy, you can stop the clock by pressing one of the numbers on your keyboard. When you stop the clock, your number will light up and you just bought the amount you pressed on your keyboard. There are different numbers you can press. We will explain that below.

The numbers on your keyboard

Every button on your keyboard is functioning as another number. The number you press stands for the amount that you buy. In the KOA settings (when you press F7) you find the number for every button on your keyboard. Here you could also change a button's number if you like. For example, the ''x'' button stands for 2. So if you buy with ''x'', you will buy 2 containers of flowers. See the picture about the button settings below:

KOA settings

Different auction clocks

There are 15 different auction clocks in Aalsmeer. Different groups of flowers will be auctioned on different clocks at the same time. To switch clocks, you could use the numbers on the keyboard. See the middle section on the picture of the settings above. When you press one of these numbers, the clock will be switched immediately and you can now buy on the clock you choose. On your screen, three or four clocks are visible at the same time, depending on the layout you choose. This way you could watch these different clocks at the same time and switch when needed. The big clock is the clock on which you will currently buy when you stop the clock. See the different layouts below:

Layout with three visible clocks: (one big clock and two side clocks)

KOA buying

Layout with four visible clocks: (one big clock and three side clocks)

What does all the different information mean?

As you see, there is a lot of information displayed on your screen like product name, grower name, amounts, length of the flower, etc. To understand what all this information means, Floraholland made a video that makes it clear. Please watch Floraholland's video below:

I just made a mistake by stopping the clock at the wrong moment, what now?

This is when you need to be very quick. When you stop the clock by accident and you want to undo it, you will need to press the button again immediately at a very high price. When you do this, the auctioneer understands that you made a mistake and he will talk to you to ask what the problem is. you can now tell him that your buy was a mistake and he will auction them again.

What if I am too late to correct my mistake?

If you are too late, you can not undo your buy anymore. The only thing we could do now is bring the flowers back after the auction brought them to us. If we bring them back, these flowers will be auctioned the next day. The only problem is that this costs €35 and you must pay for the price difference on the auction.

I'm not sure if KOA is for me

KOA comes with pros and cons. When you buy big amounts, KOA could be interesting for you. When you buy small amounts, KOA would be very cost-ineffective. If you are not sure if KOA is for you, please read our article about why you would buy on KOA and why not. For this article, click here.