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The following article was written for GoTo Auctions (formerly known as AuctionRover). The rights have reverted to the author.
When you start an online auction, you are basically opening your own store. Yes, the auction site sets the basic style and rules; but within those limits, you have enormous freedom. You can make your auctions reflect your personality and appeal to your target audience by the words you choose, the basic layout you use repeatedly, and the special offers that you build in.
Keep in mind all of the variables that you have to play with:
Clearly state your offer up front in the description and highlight it (e.g., with bold). If you have many auctions, make the same offer, explained in the same words and style, in all your auctions. If you find this approach is effective, this will become part of your online "brand." Then follow through consistently with your followup email -- for instance, telling the winner that because she was the first bidder as well as the winner the price for her is X instead of Y. This way you are not only encouraging bids, you are also encouraging return buyers.
Don't wait for the auction sites to come up with creative ways to help you encourage bidding. Do it on your own. Perhaps instead of a discount on the price, you could offer free shipping or premium shipping at the regular shipping price. Or you can offer to ship as soon as the auction has ended, instead of waiting to receive payment. And you can distribute such rewards however you feel will get the best results. You might want to reward people who win more than one of your auctions, or who bid on your auctions regularly. For instance, if you have many auctions going in the same category, you might want to reward winners who had also bid in other simultaneous auctions regardless of whether they won. And you might want to offer larger rewards for repeat winners based on how many times they have won.
If you regularly sell merchandise that is relatively costly (starting bids over $50) in the same category, and if you have a large supply of related items that you would be inclined to consider a giveaway if you ran a physical store and that wouldn't be expensive to ship, you might want to offer to send one of the giveaways to anyone who bids on any of your auctions. In that case, it would be best to have them contact you by email after the auction is over to claim their prize and give you their street address. If the giveaway comes in a number of varieties and could be considered a collectible, that could work even better to build good relations with return bidders as well as return buyers.
Let your imagination be your guide. Just try to keep the offers easy to understand and easy for you to administer. And be sure to always be clear about the terms and consistent in following through. It's your reputation that's at stake; and in online auctions, reputation is your most valuable asset.
This article and hundreds of related items by Richard is available, in plain text, on CD ROM My Internet: a Personal View of Internet Business Opportunities (B&R Samizdat Express, 2002) for $29. That same CD also includes the full text of his books The Social Web, Take Charge of Your Web Site, Shop Online the Lazy Way, and The Way of the Web. It is available from Amazon and from our online store http://store.yahoo.com/samizdat, where you can buy an entire library for the price of a book.
Other auction articles by Richard Seltzer
This site is Published by B&R Samizdat Express, 33 Gould St., West Roxbury, MA 02132. (617) 469-2269. seltzer@samizdat.com
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