Smart Features
Algorithmic surfaces that drive engagement — hot-auction detection, recommendations, auction-of-the-day, flash auctions.
Hot Auction detection
The plugin auto-flags auctions as "hot" when bid velocity exceeds a threshold.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
wkafw_hot_auction_threshold | 60 (bids in last hour) |
Hot auctions get:
- Hot badge on shop / archive pages
- Higher placement in the Auction List widget
- Featured slot in the homepage hero (configurable)
- Push notifications to "frequent bidders" segment
Recommended for you
A personalized auction recommender based on:
- User's bid history (categories, price range)
- User's watchlist (similar lots)
- Recent winning patterns (what they bid on)
- Time spent on auction pages
Renders via the Recommended for You widget / block — paginated grid of relevant auctions.
Algorithm: simple collaborative filter — "users who bid on X also bid on Y" matrix factorization, recomputed nightly.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
| Min bid history for personalization | 3 |
| Recompute frequency | daily (cron) |
| Cold-start fallback | Trending auctions in user's WP locale |
Auction of the Day
A daily-rotated featured auction shown prominently on homepage / shop.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
wkafw_auction_of_day | 0 (no manual) |
wkafw_auction_of_day_auto_rotate | no |
Manual
Pick a specific auction in Auctions → Settings → Smart Features → Auction of the Day.
Auto-rotate
If enabled, the plugin picks a new auction every midnight (UTC) based on:
- Bid count in last 24 hrs
- Watcher count
- Reserve-met flag (prefers reached-reserve auctions)
- Days since last featured (avoids repeats)
Flash Auctions
Short-burst auctions (e.g. 1-hour windows) with their own landing page and amplified urgency.
| Setting | Default |
|---|---|
wkafw_flash_auctions_enabled | yes |
| Flash window | 1 hour |
| Min bid increment | enforced via tier table |
Flash auctions show:
- Heightened urgency UI (red countdown, pulse animation)
- Push notifications when starting (to opted-in users)
- Email blast 5 minutes before
- Storefront banner during the flash
Trending now
Rolling 24-hour leaderboard of auctions by bid velocity. Useful for:
- Homepage section
- "What's hot" newsletter
- Cross-sell on individual auction pages
Similar items
On any auction page, the plugin can show "Similar items" — based on:
- Same WC category
- Same price range (±20%)
- Same vendor (multi-vendor)
- Same item condition
Rendered automatically below the auction details. Configurable per auction.
Smart pricing suggestions
When a seller creates an auction, the plugin suggests:
- Recommended starting bid — based on recent comparable sales
- Expected final price — predicted from historical data
- Recommended reserve — what to set so 80% of similar auctions sell
UI: tooltip next to each pricing field with the suggestion and reasoning.
Suggested start: $250
Suggested reserve: $1,800
Expected final: $2,400 (median of 12 similar lots)
Suggestions improve with data
Cold-start (under 100 sold auctions) suggestions are conservative. Once you have history, they narrow significantly.
Reporting
Reports → Smart Features shows:
- Hot-auction conversion (bid velocity → final price uplift)
- Recommendation click-through rate
- Auction of the Day's impact on its bid count
- Flash auction success rate (% reaching reserve)
Common questions
"How many bids = 'hot'?"
Default 60 in the last hour. For low-volume stores, reduce to 10. For high-volume, increase to 100. Tune via wkafw_hot_auction_threshold.
"Can I disable smart features entirely?"
Yes — set wkafw_smart_features_enabled = no. The plugin stops computing trending, hot, and recommendations. Disables related widgets.
"Does this require external ML services?"
No — all algorithms run inside WordPress with cached SQL queries. No external dependency.