Virtual Auctions-Not that Simple!

Monday, 30 March 2020

As we are about to enter Stage 3 of the COVID-19 restrictions, a number of agents have resorted to online platforms to conduct their auctions. Online auctions for many commodities has been around for many years. Cars, trucks, plant and machinery, art and livestock are just some that have had a varied sort of online bidding for over 10 years and of course there is ebay.

I personally ran the online auction for the Royal Children’s Hospital Good Friday Appeal for 10 years and have assisted other not for profits with online bidding. Its electric when it works well!

Real Estate, like wool auctions, has been very slow to move to a regular digital form of selling, although the wool industry is well down the track in making the move.

Now with the social distancing restrictions in place we are seeing a raft of online platforms coming into this space. They all offer a service but will it be adequate to deliver the desired results?

At this time there are people that do want to sell and there are people who do want to buy so helping your clients is a priority.

In considering an online platform make sure of 3 things:

1. Control – Do you have complete control at all stages of the campaign and more importantly the auction transaction. Some platforms say they will take care of everything from go to whoa, be very careful of this. Ask yourself the question, “Do I have the appropriate contact with all my bidders?”

2. Urgency – Is the platform able to create the urgency and then the competition that a great auction requires. Watching the car auctions last week, which had just moved to only online bidding and I saw many lots only receive 1 bid or worse no bids at all. That’s not ideal.

3. Data Usage – With people now largely confined to home and the use of ‘Live Streaming’ soaring, it is putting strains on the network. If your platform is using live steaming then make sure you have a good policy in place for when the system goes down. It’s best to look for a platform that uses minimal data.

In these unprecedented times we need to look at all the options so we can navigate our way through this situation.

If you have a question or query please leave a comment or make contact so we can discuss directly, I am only too happy to do so. Stay well and stay safe and thank you again to all our health and essential workers for doing such a terrific job.