Why would you buy on KOA (live on the auction)
What is KOA buying
To start, I will explain what KOA buying is. KOA buying is buying flowers and plants live on the Royal Floraholland's flower auction. KOA means ''remote buying'', so you won't need to be live on the location, but you will just log in on your computer during the auction to participate.
There are several pros and cons when it comes to KOA buying. Below I will tell you what the pros and the cons are.
Pros
1. It is the cheapest way to buy flowers when you need bigger amounts.
When you buy bigger amounts of one batch (the same flower or plant), you can wait till the price drops as the minimum amount gets higher. So for example, when you need 15 buckets of a Red Naomi Rose, you could wait till the minimum amount to buy is 15 buckets. Other buyers who can only have 5 buckets won't be able to wait this long and mostly need to buy at a higher price.
2. You will decide how much you pay yourself
If the price is too high, you could just wait for the next batch to be auctioned until the price is good for you. At that moment you could decide to buy.
Cons
1. It is more expensive when you buy small amounts
When you only buy small amounts, you mostly need to buy at a higher price. In this case, it would be better to buy from a wholesaler who bought a bigger batch, so it would even be cheaper to buy one bucket from them instead of the auction.
2. It takes a lot of time to participate in the auction
The auction starts at 6 am Dutch time and will finish between 9 and 11 am, depending on the offers. If you need to buy a flower that will be auctioned at the end, you will need to wait a long time before you can buy this flower. In this case, it would be a lot more efficient to buy from a webshop.
3. It is your own risk when you make a mistake
When you make the mistake of buying the wrong product, at the wrong price or the wrong amount, you will only have a couple of seconds to recover the mistake. After that, there is no going back. The only way to recover afterward is to have the ''wrong flowers'' auctioned the next day. Here for the auction charges €35 and the price difference is also paid by you.
Conclusion
Buying on the auction could be very costs effective, but only when you could buy bigger amounts. We see that this will mostly work for wholesalers or florists with three shops or more, but if you are a florist, it would take too much time and it wouldn't be cost-effective also.
Prices and how to buy on KOA
Do you want to buy on KOA yourself? Please request an account with us.
www.ppflowers.nl/request-account/
If you want to know more about the pricing of KOA and how it works, please have a look here:
