No, we do not "lock" inventory and here's why:
Executing high demand releases is hard and we've spent a lot of time and energy developing our purchase flow. We actually make it a point to poll our consumers on how they would prefer that carting works.
Based on 70% of our consumers preference we designed carting the following ways:
- Fastest Finger Wins - the consumers who hit the purchase button first, have first rights to inventory.
- No Inventory Locks - to protect our system from bots we do not allow inventory locks or "cart locks." We come from the ticketing industry and this causes major issues.
- Partial Cart Purchases - knowing that time is of the essence we will always fulfill those items that are available in your cart. If you try and purchase 2 items and one is sold out, we go ahead an fulfill the other so you don't have to start over and lose out.
- Buy Now Button - if there is one item you really desire over another, we have the Buy Now button for a faster check out.
On top of that, for truly high demand releases we have our Random Draw product. It is akin to a lottery and creates a fairer process for all involved.
There is no perfect solution, but we have put an incredible amount of thought into how ours we designed. It's not for everyone, but it serves the vast majority of our partners and consumers demands.