auction
... biddings, which may last for a few days, are shown at the host’s website and updated continually to show the current highest bids. There are three basic categories of online auction. · (B2B)- business-to-business: auctions involve items such as computers, used equipments. · (B2C)- business to consumer: auctions in which business sold goods and services to consumers via the Internet. (Used or discontinued goods or unwanted inventory. · (C2C)-consumer to consumer: auction, which gives interested sellers and buyers the opportunity to engage in competitive bidding. The transparency of the online auction streamlines competitive process, allowing negotiation to occur in real time as suppliers butt heads, lowering prices to match cost. The online auction has introduced dynamic competion through negotiations, this serves as a measure to drive cost down and build relationship with winners. The auction opens the business opportunity to a global market allowing the seller / buyer to upgrade its supply base to only the most competitive players in the world. This will allow competitive price suppliers. The critical elements for competitive online auction are as follows: · Commodity selection: the components or items selected for auction must be purchased in a large volume to justify price. · Internal communication: the sourcing strategy and goals of the auction must be clearly defined to all stakeholders. (The auction process because it is largely untested, requires a large amount of internal marketing to ensure its success.) · External communication: the auction should be presented as an opportunity to gain a long-term relationship where price is not continuously revisited. (Price is only one element of the bid and that quality, service, warranty, and all relevant terms and conditions will be evaluated.) · Bid comparability: the bids received are the same in comparisons to other bids in the same lot. · Process ownership: the buying company must take ownership of the auction process, not leaving critical sourcing activities to the auctioneer. The buyer is bound to live by the sourcing decision that arises from the auction. The auction provider is in business solely to maximize the effectiveness of the auction. How strong are the competitive pressures confronting eBay and other online auction firms? The invasion of name brand merchandisers or fairmarket, like Amazon. Bid, yahoo and other sites poses competition to the markets currently enjoyed by ebay, even though their current impacts have been less than spectular over the long haul, business to consumer relationship. EBay is the goliath of auction sites, with thousands of sales daily and 2,978 categories to bid. Ebay huge selection brings in so many buyers to the site in the form of both new and returning customers, that why most sellers choose it. Other tactics used to reach new customers and build traffic to the sites are partnering with shopping search engines, direct email, online advertising at portals and contecnts-related sites and some traditional advertising such as prints ads and television commercials. To attract sellers ebay introduced several features, such as minimum opening bids and reserve prices. If bidding did not top the reserve price the seller was under no obligation to sell the item to the highest bidder and could realist the item for free. Sellers could also set a “buy it now” price that allowed bidders to pay a set amount for a listed item and thus end the auction immediate...