Pick-up quotas
IMPORTANT UPDATE: Since Wednesday 20th September we have switched off the flexible quota test - and we don’t have any plans to test or roll it out further. The fixed quota test is still running in the test areas of: Leicester, Birmingham, Cardiff, Coventry, Swindon, Norwich, Milton Keynes, Cornwall and Devon.
Why has Olio introduced pick-up quotas for free listings?
Our analysis shows that 10% of Olio-ers pick up approximately half the listings on the app each month, which is on average £3,000+ of free stuff per person, per year. Alongside this, we have tens of thousands of Olio-ers each month who don’t receive anything at all.
We’re therefore running a test introducing pick-up quotas to ensure listings are distributed more fairly within our community. The benefits of this are threefold:
👨👦👦 More people will have the chance of a successful request
🌍 The Olio community will grow and therefore have more environmental & social impact
💚 If more people benefit, then hopefully more people will become Olio Supporters, which means we can cover our costs, and continue to operate
You can watch the Olio Community Webinar from August 2023 which fully explains the context of this decision.
How many pick-ups can I have before I reach the pick-up quota?
We are testing two levels of quotas:
- 20 free listings - Every Olio-er can pick up 20 free listings in any four-week period. After picking up 20 free listings you will have the option to increase your quota by an additional 60 pickups by becoming a Supporter.
- 80 free listings - Each Supporter can pick up 80 Free listings in any four-week period (i.e. an additional 60 pickups over and above non-Supporters). After 80 pick-ups of free listings, you will not be able to request any more listings until the number of Free listings you have picked up in the last four weeks drops below 80.
Please note that the 20 and 80 pickups are the thresholds we’re launching with, and may well change as we test how this feature works.
How are the quotas calculated?
Quotas are calculated based on the number of Free listings (food and non-food), you have picked up in the last four weeks. A pick-up is created when the Olio-er giving away the free listing marks in the app that you are picking up that listing (they do this in the messaging conversation between you, and you will receive a message confirming that you are picking up that listing).
The quota does not take into consideration the number of items you have received in a particular pick-up e.g. whether you have received 1 bunch of bananas or 5 bunches of bananas.
How do I know how many free listings I’ve picked up in the last four weeks? And how do I know if I have reached my pick-up quota?
Go into the main menu in the app and select ‘My Impact’. At the bottom, you can see how many listings you have received in the past four weeks. This takes into account activity across all sections of the app (For Sale, Wanted, and Borrow) so won’t be perfectly accurate in relation to pick-ups on free listings but it should give you a good idea.
You will know you’ve reached both your ‘flexible’ and ‘fixed’ quota as you’ll see a message within the app the next time you request a Free listing that takes you over the threshold. In time we hope to build a personalised pick-up counter so you can see at a glance how close you are to the relevant quota.
How much does it cost to unlock more monthly pick-ups?
If you have reached your 20 free listings pick-up quota, you can lift it by becoming an Olio Supporter. You can find out how to become a Supporter, and how much it costs here.
There is no way to increase your 80 free listings quota as the aim of this is to share listings more fairly amongst the Olio community.
Do I have to pay twice: once to remove ads, and once to lift the quota?
No. You will only need to become a Supporter once to both remove ads and lift the quota. If you are already a Supporter, you will not be impacted by the 20 free listings quota, however, the 80 free listings quota will apply to you because it applies to everyone in the Olio community.
I’m a paying Supporter - why can’t I request more Free listings?
This probably means that you have reached your 80 free listings quota. You will need to wait until the number of Free listings which you have picked up in the last four weeks drops to below the 80 free listings quota threshold.
How do I know how long I have to wait until I’m able to request Free listings?
You will be able to request more free listings as soon as your number of free pick-ups in the last four weeks drops below 20 or 80 (if you are a supporter). We hope to make this more visible in the app in the near future.
How do pick-up quotas affect the 7 in 7 delay?
There has been no change to the 7 in 7 delay so it is still active for users in the pick-up quotas test areas. We do appreciate that there’s a lot of overlap between these features and we are conducting a review of the effectiveness of the 7 in 7 delay with the view to potentially removing it in the future if we roll out pick-up quotas to everyone.