I was scrolling Instagram yesterday, and an ad stopped me in my tracks. It was for a wooden puzzle business that was shutting down and selling their remaining inventory at deep discounts.
Or was it…
The production value was just a little too slick for the type of small business it was claiming to be.
The small business sob story, the insanely cheap advertised price, the optimized website. It all screamed sophisticated Alibaba droppshipper to me.
Being the semi-professional internet spy that I am, I had to dig deeper. I did something you, dear reader, may find insane. I clicked “Learn more”.
The PuzzlesUp website is highly conversion optimized
The landing page has the sob story repeated at the top, a dreaded countdown timer that has about 10 hours to go, and a bunch of jigsaw puzzles at 75% to 95% off their list price (none of which match the frog puzzle in the ad).
Let’s click one and see what we find…
This is a well optimized product page.
- “🔥 Last Day” in the product title.
- Nearly perfect 5 star rating on a decent number of reviews.
- A highly discounted price.
- A bunch of information and icons to indicate trustworthiness.
- A big, scary, red countdown timer WITH A DIFFERENT TIME to really jack up the urgency!
It’s important to note that Beautifully Designed ≠ High Conversion. This design is pretty functional in my opinion. The red countdown timer maybe edges into “ugly” territory. But I bet it converts well.
Who wants to bet me that this exact puzzle is available on Alibaba for under $2.99? No takers? Really? Come on!
PuzzlesUp sources their products from Alibaba
Conveniently Alibaba has a reverse image search feature. The very first listing had the exact turtle puzzle. For $2.51 to $2.86 depending on quantity.
How could PuzzlesUp make money by selling products at cost?
Its a two part answer:
- Shipping is $9.90 for orders under $60. For small and light packages (like puzzles), shipping direct from China costs less than that. The seller breaks even on the product and makes a small margin (maybe 10-20%) on shipping cost for customers who purchase these tiny, cheap puzzles.
- PuzzlesUp sells the “Big” version of the puzzle for $17.99, and the “Big+Wooden Box” version for $29.99. The Alibaba listing doesn’t specify the cost of different sizes. They may be slightly more expensive, but not by much. Assuming the cost of goods is $4 and $6 on these variants, they are both around 80% margin (plus the profit on shipping).
So the seller makes a tiny profit on the customers buying their lowest priced products, but they make a solid margin on those who want to upgrade.
Let’s take a look at their Meta ad library.
PuzzlesUp knows exactly what type of ad works
450+ ads running with the most recent batch published in the last 7 days.
All of the ads are one of 3 formats:
- Static images of completed puzzles with AI generated backgrounds
- Static images of AI generated people holding puzzle boxes
- Videos that combine clips of people working on the puzzle with pans of puzzle pieces or completed puzzles
Here is the full ad that I saw:
All of them use the exact same copy. Its been the exact same for at least the last 9 months. And they have run variations of the store closing copy for more than a year and a half.
It is with a heavy heart that I announce the permanent closure of my Wooden Puzzles Store. 😢 Being a full-time Wooden Puzzle Designer has proven incredibly challenging. After months of trying to juggle my professional career and this passion project, I’ve made the tough decision to put my dream on hold and close my Wooden Puzzles collection.
I have SLASHED prices on everything to ensure my puzzles find homes with as many puzzle lovers as possible.
Shop closing sale here ➡️
Does this still work?
PuzzlesUp continues to publish new ads. That would indicate this is still profitable and worth the investment of additional time and effort.
If they are actually dropshipping direct from China, I would expect the combination of closing the de minimis loophole and increased tariffs on Chinese imports to alter the economics.
The rise of Temu must have had an impact on PuzzlesUp. Very similar wooden puzzles are on Temu for under $10 (and often under $5).
Are any of these ideas worth stealing?
The answer depends on your goals.
If you want to arbitrage Meta ads to generate a profit? Then this is not a bad playbook to follow.
If you want to build a reputable brand with repeat customers that can be sold one day? Then none of these ideas are worth stealing.
I personally find this to be a dishonest way of marketing. The misleading small business sob story, the never ending closeout sale, and the fake countdown timers are all a little sleazy to me. But I’m not here to yuck someone else’s yums. The people behind PuzzlesUp may be laughing all the way to the bank!