Best Auction Software

Auction is a popular way to sell merchandise as it can fetch unexpected payoffs to the auctioneers and the bidders. With digital advancement, buyers have a convenience to purchase merchandise from global auction houses and international sale events via virtual auction platforms. However, both the offline and the online competitive bidding mechanism comes with a lot of challenges that need to be overcome. For example, issues related to online auction frauds, transparency in bidding, the efficiency of the auction process, operator manipulation, etc. need to be addressed efficiently to conduct a successful auction. 

Here, the auction technology comes as a savior, and it helps auctioneers and buyers to get rid of all possible hurdles in the auction process. However, the benefits and effectiveness of auctioning may differ due to selecting a particular auction platform or auction software. Selecting a standardized auction software with all features required for auctioning is a challenging task even for the most seasoned auctioneers. Therefore, this buyer's guide aims to guide auctioneers to select the best auction software tool for their business by providing a detailed analysis of all factors such as price, types, features, and functions to consider before investing in an auction management solution. 

An auction is a sale event where buying and selling of goods and services occur. Auctions can take place in both; online and offline platforms. Unlike other transactions, an auction works for products and services by offering bids, taking bids, and finally selling it to the highest bidder or buying it from the lowest bidder. Bidding can happen in an open or a closed format:

• In the closed format or the private auction, such as contracts for construction, bidders are not aware of competing bids. Bids are invited beforehand, and the one who has submitted the lowest bid gets the deal.  
• In an open auction, such as a livestock auction, property sale, item sales, and others, bidders are aware of the bids by other participants. The participants are allowed to increase their bids continuously until the final bid takes place, and no one is willing to quote a higher price than the ‘last bid price’. 

Selling goods and services

An auction is an economical process whose primary purpose is to allocate goods and services via a bidding process. Auction is a win-win situation for all the parties involved- the buyers, sellers, bidders, the auctioning agency, etc. 

Effective and profitable method of trading products

Also, auctions are perceived as a potentially efficient mechanism for trading and buying of goods and services. They are used for various products, but, particularly, for rare, expensive goods, which are hard to price. For instance, the whistle used by the officer in the Titanic boat that got drowned in 1912 AD had a pre-sale value of upto $3788. The painting made by Pablo Picasso in a single day span in 1932 got sold for a whopping $106.5 million. 

Charity purposes

There are charity auctions conducted every year by popular museums that donate the auction income for charity purposes. Auctions have also been made a seamless experience with the emergence of the internet, making online bidding possible.

Based on the bidding conditions:
Minimum-Bid Auction

It's also at times called a minimum published bid auction. In this type of auction, the feeblest agreeable amount is decided by the sellers and the auction firms. The minimum amount is then declared in all the marketing matters. The items cannot be sold before the bidding approaches the minimum amount. Buyers can buy at or above the minimum-bid auction. 

Absolute Auction

Absolute means the highest bid wins. Price is not taken into consideration in an absolute auction. It is riskier for sellers as items may fetch any price depending upon the bidders. However, it is also very profitable as bidders' competitive pricing may take high levels. 

Reserve Auction 

In a reserve auction, the seller holds the right to either accept or reject the highest bid. The owner reserves all the rights to sell the property. However, the predetermined price is not disclosed to the public. 

Sealed Bid Auction

In this type of auction, all bids are kept confidential. Typically, they are submitted to the agent and then inaugurated at a proposed time and place. The benefit here is a fair game, and the highest or lowest bidder wins the deal. 

Based on the mode of conduct:

Live Auction

Live auction is the on-site auction that takes place in auditoriums, hotels, or closed spaces where participants are physically present at the auction site. 

Online Auction

Online auction is a virtual auction that takes place over the online platform, and participants bid online using the functionality of auction software.

Also, other popular types of auctions are:

English Auction

In the English Auction, auctioneers provide a suggested opening bid price and the reserved price for the merchandise. Also known as open cry ascending auction, the English auction accepts higher bids as they come. 

Dutch Auction

The Dutch auction, often followed by the IPOs (Initial Public Offerings), is a process that averages out higher bids until the entire stock is covered up. The auctioneers lower the prices to accommodate all items, and then all bidders receive the items as per the cut off price. Those who bid below the cutoff price don’t receive items. 

Sports Auction

Recently popularized sports auctions have received tremendous response among the bidders and the auctioneers. Sports auction refers to the selling of sports goods, or sportsperson playing for a team. Team owners purchase their players by participating in an open auction.  

Bidding/e-bidding: 

Bidding or e-bidding is to put the best price card forward for purchasing or selling something. In simple terms, when a buyer and seller takes part in an online or offline auction event, the one who bids the maximum for that commodity or lowest for service is allowed the deal. E-bidding is the process of bidding through an electronic medium.

Buyout Price: 

In the financial world, a buyout is mainly an investment transaction by which the maximum share of the corporation's stock is procured. However, buyout terminology in auction depicts where the seller determines a nominal price at which participants can buy the item. Today, most of the auction sites list their products with a buyout price available for the bidders. 

Appraisal:

In the auction, an appraisal is the potential value of an item as perceived by the auction house. It is taken into consideration through a valuation process by comparing the products with other similar products in the market. It is done to determine the ‘fair value’ of a product.

Online Auction:

An online auction is a virtual process where interested bidders can participate in buying or selling items.  The selling and bidding of the commodities are done via an online auction platform.  The auction platform is a virtual medium to sell goods and raise bids. It entirely facilitates the complete auction process for participants. 

Absentee bids:

An absentee bidder places a bid beforehand with mutual agreement with the auctioneer before the auction begins. In short, it's the practice of making a bid even in your absence. Such requests can be submitted in a written or verbal format, depending on the terms and conditions of the auction house.  Though the auctioneer is aware of the bidder's bid amount, they do not disclose it at the auction until the price point reaches the absentee bidder's quoted price. 

Hammer Price:

Hammer price is the highest price at which the auction comes to an end. The winning bid is announced when no one is willing to bid anything higher than the amount, it is when the auctioneer's hammer falls, which determines that the service or commodity has been traded. However, it determines the sale price but does not include the buyer's premium. 

Buyer’s Premium:

In auctions, the buyer's premium is a cost above the hammer price of an auction item. The winning bidder is supposed to pay both the hammer price as well as the buyer's premium charged by the auctioneer to satisfy administrative charges. The buyer's premium goes directly to the auction house and not to the seller. For example, Christie's (world's biggest Auction House) buyer's premium ranges from 13 to 30% of the total sale value. It made history when it sold Salvator Mundi by Leonardo-da-Vinci for $450 million, thus receiving one of the highest buyer's premiums ever on a single item sale.

The word 'Auction' has etymological roots in the Latin language where 'auctus' means 'increasing.' The word is as old as the 5th century BC. The earliest known auctions were conducted in Greece and Rome where the usual items for sale were slaves, war spoils, and debtors' assets. Many years later, in 1674 AD, the first modern auction house got established in Stockholm, Sweden. A few years later, one of the world's largest and internationally acclaimed auction houses- The Sotheby’s Auction House was established in 1744 AD. The buyers' desire to purchase attractively priced items, the natural urge to compete, longing for antique and rare items, and the thrill of the bidding process have kept the auction houses flourishing since the seventeenth century.

With the advancement of technology, auction houses have undergone a sea change and have become more profitable and globally recognized. With the advent of online auction platforms in 1995, the auction houses have been able to reach wider buying public and have successfully eliminated the physical constraints of live auctions such as geographical barriers, physical presence, time constraints, etc. 

The traditional/offline auctions are planned well before running it live. It usually requires up to three-four weeks in advance to set up before the auction day. The principal idea is to own enough time in the hands of the organizer to research, hit the bid option, or determine the participants and the rules. 

On the contrary, online auctions essentially cut down the time significantly due to automation and quick accessibility on various parameters. 

Listing and selling your commodities at an online auction platform comes with many risks and challenges. The foremost risk is the risk of online scams and hacking of valuable data.

Let us see in detail:

Malware risks and online frauds

Online auctions make auctioneers' lives much more comfortable. It also allows them to ease the whole process of trading. However, online scams and breaches that may occur often cause a huge loss to auctioneers. Even after analyzing all the preventive measures, there are attempts by hackers to steal valuable data, especially when it comes to rare and antique items.

Badware, also known as malware or spyware- infects the computer systems in various ways like- Infected sites, memory sticks, or digital pictures or frames for that matter. It might pop up as an irritating notification and unwanted advertisements promising cheap and unrealistic schemes to fraud your participants on your name.  

It can also happen in the absence of your knowledge and circulating your data to a third party. Sometimes the intensity of the cyber-attacks increases to a level where it can even tap to attack financial and government institutions. The hackers will lower the price or change the price structure to cheat the auctioneers. This mostly happens when there are thousands of listed items by a particular auction house. To be cent percent sure, it is highly advisable to use a reliable auction software that encrypts data and has continuously updated firewalls. 

Other Challenges:

Registration issues

Often bidders get rejected due to incomplete information in the forms. It is a loss to auctioneers as any rejected bidder may be a high-profile bidder. 

Listings of products:

The enormous amount of items up for sale in auction makes it challenging to record all items and prepare an error-free list of all items. 

Bidding manipulation issues

Sometimes, unscrupulous operators may play in connivance with each other to manipulate pricing and the bidding process. It may cause a huge loss to the auctioneers or legitimate buyers.

Payment issues

As proceedings from auctions are enormous in value, auctioneers need to ensure a proper payment mechanism is at place to take care of payment-related issues.

Auction software is a  utility and individual program for the process of auctioning. Auction Software is a buying and selling platform designed to aid the auctioneer community. Through the web and its mobile apps, Auction software assists users in setting up their online marketplace by implementing features developed for different auction types. The software intends to grow businesses by connecting auctioneers, customers, clients, service providers, bidders, sellers, merchants, and buyers. It provides all tools required for organizing, managing, and conducting an effective auction event.

Easy Management of the Auction and secure process

Auction software has tools to manage a live auction event. It ensures proper planning, live recording, item allocation, execution,  and tracking of the auction. It mitigates issues of fake bidding, manipulated bidding, online scams, etc. by continuously monitoring the process with its security features. 

Bulk Upload of All The Products: 

Upload all your items in the store with CSV file format that eliminates the manual work and uploads all the products at one go. With this feature, the difficulty of manually uploading pieces and posting them on auction stores is reduced.

Automatic Bidding Functionality: 

Bidders can set up auto-bid functionality and set maximum bid limit, the starting price of the bid, and the time interval to adhere. Bidders need not always follow an auction before placing a bid. This feature helps bidders and enables them to bid even when they are busy. 

Set-up Unlimited Membership Plans: 

If you are running an auction marketplace then you would be able to monetize the auctions on your website by allowing bidders to register as paid members.

No Geographical Constraint

Using online auction software is advantageous as you can create, organize and  participate in the auction process remotely by sitting at your convenient place. 

No manual work

Rather than trying to manage an auction via paper and pen methods, a good online auction software provides a simple solution for the organizations to easily set up the auction automatically with few clicks.

Pre-register facility

Participating bidders can either pre-register or register on-site and manage all the inventory listings in the software database before the event. 

Simplified Checkout

Auction software helps to simplify the process of checkout after an auction closes. With the help of suitable tools, administrators can quickly prepare the documents of sale as well as handle the payment transactions through online payment or credit card swiper, whichever is convenient.

Real-time bidding

Auctioneers can see real-time bidding information on their dashboards with this functionality of the auction software. 

1. Assists in identifying and listing the best products

Auction software helps auctioneers in picking the best products based on past experiences and selling trend analysis. Analysis reports from auction software can help auctioneers to determine:

• Is the product unique or antique based on data records?
• Can the products be sold in volumes?
• Is there enough demand for the product?
• Is the competition to buy that product in abundance?
• What kind of profit margin are you expecting, is it reasonable?

2. Helps in categorization and identification of bidder’s interest

Auction software can automatically create categories to list products, and this eases the sale process. It also helps the buyers and participants browse through the product categories listed on auction websites and check out how much the current price on bidding is going on and on what particular products? 

Auctioneers can search for related and relevant products, discover which ones sell the highest, and recognize which categories they fall into. Based on the browsing records of bidders, auctioneers can have some idea about the trends, likes, dislikes, and the behavior of potential bidders. They can keep a note of it and try incorporating the analysis when they try selling their  listed items.

3. Create a marketing plan

Auctioneers can create Ad and marketing plans with the help of the auction software tools. Auction software provides all features for branding, emailing, and third-party ad integration to enrich items' visibility.  Auctioneers can attract more traffic to their website by posting banners or links to their site in the ads.

4. Gain better feedback ratings

The most loyal way to prove yourself a dependable and responsible auctioneer in an online auction is by having an excellent feedback rating.  If you're not honest, it will reflect in your reviews and warn other buyers to stay away from your products. However, if you have a positive rating, you can increase your sales by a considerable amount.

Auction software helps  auctioneers  get a good feedback rating:

• Integrates with logistics partners to help them deliver products in a stipulated time frame or sooner
• Helps them answer buyers' questions or queries promptly with real-time reminders of customer queries.
• Automatically follows up with bidders for feedback on the auction process, the quality of the product, which will ensure great customer satisfaction.

5. Helps in revising  listings without the hassle

You should periodically be testing and revising your auction listings. Even if they're doing fine, you may discover that minor modifications can significantly improve sales. Instead of relying only on one site, post on multiple websites, and observe what works and what doesn't. 

Auctioneers can tweak these elements easily with an auction management software and see the results for each change-

• Commercial copy and photos
• Pricing
• Timing
• Several products

Auction Software is a tool that helps users to set up their online auction marketplace. The software targets to grow and develop businesses by connecting clients, vendors, service providers, freelancers, bidders, buyers, and sellers. With auction software tools you can launch a marketplace website for auctions. The marketplace website will help you attract buyers in any auction market. With its tools you can:

• Add your own categories and list items 
• Add, and modify bid prices 
• Mention and change reserve price
• Add item images and descriptions

Ecommerce Sites:

Ebay, earlier known as auctionweb, made an empire in auction-related sales. E-Commerce businesses can deploy auction software to sell products in auctions. 

Art Houses and Exhibition Galleries

Post-war and contemporary art sales accounted for 2.26 billion U.S dollars in the first half of 2019.  Art Houses and exhibition galleries constantly conduct auctions for their business, and therefore auction software can help them in inviting guests and connoisseurs of arts, create tickets, manage the product catalog, invoicing, etc. 

Government Agencies

Government agencies often have to invite bids for various contracts. They can use the functionalities of free live auction software to expedite their auctions.  

Banks

Banks have to often auction the bankruptcy proceedings and assets from the delinquents. They can use auction software to streamline and automate the process and to fetch the best possible value for their assets. 

Real-Estate

Real-Estate auctions are very common for selling properties and conducting land-sales. Real estate sellers can use auction software for a complete listing of property information and allow buyers to participate in an ongoing auction process.

Professional Auctioneers

Professional auctioneers who buy and sell antique items, heritage valuables, artifacts, etc. can also deploy auction software to increase their reach and increase profitability. 

Sports authorities

Sports authorities and sports clubs who buy sports persons and sports items can also deploy auction software to manage their auction process effectively. 

Payment protection system

Auction Software uses the Escrow payment protection system, which is available in its project management functionality. In this system, the bidder has to deposit some funds to an Escrow account before the bidding starts. For example, before the bidding starts, a security amount is deposited in the Escrow amount by the participants to make sure that the participant transacting can make a payment for the auction bid. 

Multiple Payment Gateway Support

Auction software supports multiple payment gateway support for fast and secure payment processing. Clients can make online payments through any preferred online portal. 

Listing products

Auction software provides a vast range of options, including- Listing Duration, Out of Stock Control, Price monitoring, Best Offers, Immediate Payments, Auction Start Price, Buy It Now Price, etc. You can customize every requirement as per your feasibility. However, an auction platform does not allow you to have an option of "Out of Stock" as you cannot have an out of stock, yet active, auction. 

Guest Management

Records of guests, table arrangement plan, walk-in guest management, sponsor guest management, remaining table space in real-time, etc. are features of this module.

Bulk storage

It allows users to upload the bulk of their items to store them. It decreases the burden of manually uploading items and listing them on their store. Users can create a CSV file that contains product data and descriptions. 

Templates

Auction software offers ready to print auction material and collaterals often used in auctions such as bidding sheets. 

Online Tickets and sponsorship sales

Auction software integrates with your website or offers a separate portal where potential bidders and interested sponsors can buy online tickets to your auction. If your auction is completely open and free, bidders and sponsors can register themselves with this feature. 

Reporting

Auction reporting regarding the number of auctions conducted, items sold per auction, number of attendees, etc. 

Auction Layout

Administrators can organize the layout of the online auction by product category, starting bid prices, buy options, and featuring items for sale, sponsors, etc. with help of the online auction platforms.  Moreover, they can upload pictures and images with descriptions of sale items in a template ready fashion.

Some other features of an Auction Software are as follows:

• Feedback and Reviews
• Email Management
• Bid History
• Automatic bidding
• Social media login functionality

Consider the following factors about the auction software you are planning to purchase:

• Does it provide all essential features as required for an effective auction?
• Can it work smoothly with low bandwidth internet connectivity?
• Is the system scalable to accommodate more products or bidders?
• Is the online auction system compatible with all devices such as desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones? 
• Whether the auction platform provides a safe payment mode and encryption to prevent any security breach while the auction is on?
• Is the software user-friendly, sophisticated, and easy to use?
• Does the software vendor provide 24/7 customer support?
• Does the auction software vendor provide a free version, live demo, or free trial of its functionalities?
•  Are any hidden costs, installation, and training charges? 

The costs of  the best auction software depend on a large number of factors such as:

• Features it offers
• Type of installation required: Cloud-based, Web-based, on-premise software, or open-source.
• User interface and experience
• The type of automation it offers
• The number of auctions it can manage 
• The number of devices it can work upon simultaneously
• Quality of service and user support offered 
• Privacy and the data encryption it provides 

These variations can significantly alter the pricing estimations of the auction software. 

The complete plan of ReadySetAuction will cost you around $1999 a year, the select plan will cost $1499 a year, and the essential plan costs $1099 a year.

Auction management software such as  Handbid will cost $2495 a year for its premium plan, and $1295 a year for the basic plan.  Virtual event solutions by PHP Pro Bid comes for $321.34  for its lifetime license. 

Another popular pricing method is the percentage-based method—auction software vendors such as SimpleAuctionSite charge 4-5% on gross sales per auction.  

If you are looking for free auction software, then Dealer Simplified and BiddingOwl offer free versions of auction software with limited feature plans. If you need a free and open source auction software then go for Bidhub. For other online auction software such as bidJS, Rainworx, Auction-Experts, Nextlot, Auctioneer, Bidpath, and many others, you need to contact the vendor for detailed pricing. Get the updated list and complete information from the GoodFirms auction software page. 

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The readers of this buyer's guide for auction software are advised to navigate the list of thoroughly researched best auction software solutions that provide immense features and best services to manage auctions.  You can also read auction software reviews here.