Top Features for Your Online Auction Website

There are various online business models used by retailers: traditional e-commerce websites, marketplaces, and auction marketplaces. Each business model’s suitability is determined by such basic factors as products and services being sold, a pricing model, target market specifics, etc.

While traditional websites and marketplaces deliver a similar shopping experience and differ only in the number of sellers on the platform, auction marketplaces are another story. In a classic English auction model, sellers put their items on the market, and buyers, in turn, place bids on what they want to buy. Eventually, the buyer with the highest bid wins the auction.

To digitalize an auction shopping experience and develop a proper virtual bidding process, some vital online auction features must be considered. It is worth noting that auction website functionality varies in terms of the business niche (e.g. automotive, real estate, antiques) and bidding systems an auction website follows. Nevertheless, to achieve pure customer satisfaction, you should ensure your auction platform includes a set of universal features. To pick them correctly, let’s define the auction website’s main users.

Similar to a simple marketplace model, there are three types of users on an auction platform:

• Service providers or sellers;
• Buyers;
• Website administrators.

Each user group must be provided with relevant features that correspond to the activities they conduct on the platform.

Seller features

The primary seller’s goal is listing their products and services, capture the attention of buyers and make profitable deals.

• Upload, delete, or change product description;
• Upload high-quality pictures of the lots;
• Evaluate products online;
• Create product categories and sort items by them;
• Hide or reveal items;
• Launch auctions;
• Track the auction dynamics;
• Send invoices to auction winners.

Bidder features

Online bidders’ needs must be addressed comprehensively as well. Here is what buyers must be capable of on your auction marketplace:

• Search for relevant items;
• Register for an auction;
• Place a bid;
• Track their bid status in real-time;
• Receive notifications on bid results;
• Have access to their order history;
• Leave reviews and rate products and sellers.

Admin features

The key role of marketplace admins is encouraging interaction between sellers and buyers.

• Conduct email marketing campaigns;
• Manage product categories;
• Prove or decline sellers or their items;
• Delete or block misbehaved buyers;
• Export data and generate reports on auction platform activity;
• Notify sellers and bidders by email.

Conclusion

Picking the right functionality for your online auction website requires an understanding of essential aspects of your project: your business niche, marketing approach, a bidding mechanism, needs and preferences of your auction platform’s users.

This article, which describes core auction types and features in more detail, will help you clearly decide on how to proceed with your online auction project and make it successful.