Aerista Auctions: Learnings from Week 1
The first week of Aerista Auctions is now behind us, and the first five Cirrus auctions closed on Friday afternoon. In the spirit of continued transparency, we wanted to share some lessons learned, and offer a recap of the first week of activity.
Results
The results exceeded our expectations: the auctions attracted a large number of participants, the bidding process allowed several airplanes to come tantalizingly close to clearing within the auction framework itself, and deals have now been put together as a result. We learned a lot, and will continue to apply these learnings to improving the auction experience (and success rate) in the coming weeks.
Highlights
- 50+ registered bidders
- 99 submitted bids on 5 airplanes
- 2 of the 5 auctions were bid up to 99% of their reserve price – incredibly close!
- 2 other auctions reached at least 95% of their reserve price
Take-aways
As this new marketplace gains traction and visibility, the tiny gap between the highest bid and reserve price should be bridged organically. We launched Aerista Auctions last week with not much more than a couple social media posts and an email blast. There are many potential market participants who do not yet know about the existence of the auction site. As more buyers and sellers become active, the easier it will be for the markets to clear.
We believe there is tremendous value right now in having this market interaction play out in an organized and transparent fashion. Regardless of whether reserve prices are or are not met for any given auction, there is a lot to be learned by observing the actions of other market participants. Aerista Auctions is happy to be able to provide this window into the inner workings of the marketplace during this time of uncertainty.
Next Steps
Structurally, we have made a few changes. Most notably, we removed the minimum bid requirement, because it was being confused with either a reserve price, or an actual bid for the airplane. Going forward, all bidding will start at $1. Also, we increased our web hosting resources, to ensure that users will always have unfettered access to the site. Apologies to anyone who had difficulties accessing the website at points throughout the week. No doubt, too much website traffic was a good problem to have!
More inventory has already been posted at Aerista Auctions, and additional auctions are slated to begin this weekend. We look forward to reporting back with more success stories and lessons learned in a week or so.
For those who participated in the auctions last week, thank you! We’re interested to hear any feedback you might have about your experience. For those who are considering getting involved in the auction bidding in the coming weeks, please do. The more engagement we have from buyers and sellers, the more insights we will be able to collect and share about the state of the Cirrus market.