this article from dec 98 shows how much qxl has expanded:
go2.guardian.co.uk
Internet auctions are recreating some of the hustle and bustle of the flea market online, writes Stephen McLaren
What am I bid.com?
The principle of an Internet auction is simple: point your browser at an auction site and eye up the bargains; e-mail your bid and and check back from time to time to see if someone has outbid you then decide whether to raise or drop out. Online auctions are more than just about creating a buzz, they are a whole new online economic model which can deliver huge discounts to smart consumers and enable retailers to flog hard-to-shift stock. Last September, the world's largest Net auction company, San Jos‚-based, eBay (http://www.ebay.com), floated on the stockmarket and at the height of trading was valued at $2 billion. About one million shoppers have sold or browsed through 600,000 items on the eBay site and it is one of the few Internet sales companies to actually make a profit - last year, $874,000.
Hundreds of companies are jumping on the bandwagon. There is no limit to what can be bought and sold and for many online auction fans, half the fun is looking for those items you are unlikely to find without trawling the world's junk shops.
Usually auctions offer merchandise from a manufacturer or distributor or they facilitate peer-to-peer sales, similar to newspaper classifieds.
London-based online auction specialists, QXL (http://www.qxl.com) offers a range of consumer and electronic goods and even holiday packages. Typically there are about 100 items under bid at any one time and most auctions take place over 12 hours. Bidders are alerted by e-mail if someone has upped the ante. Winners have their credit card details processed by Quixell and the item mailed to them within a day. The company claims that, users typically end up paying around half the High Street price, and that since September 1997, the site has sold nearly œ2 million worth of merchandise.
As of this week, QXL is also venturing into peer-to-peer selling, the mainstay of American sites like eBay. QXL founder Tim Jackson, believes the Internet is ideally-suited for this kind of market. "Peer-to-peer auctions are better than taking a classified in the paper. With classifieds you tend to either price your item too high and get no calls, or price it too low and have your answering machine clogged up. With an auction you automatically find that person who most wants your item."
Although the likes of eBay and QXL are creating the online equivalent of huge flea markets, the potential for the more conventional auction houses to extend their repertoire has already been recognised. Bonhams, for instance, already accepts e-mail bids and has online catalogues. Although Bonhams and other up-market auctioneers have a reputation for selling luxury art products and aren't likely to be flogging all-and-sundry on their web site, expect to see them offering the likes of medal and stamp collections over the web in 1999.
Online auctions are also good news for companies wanting to get rid of end-of-the-line or time-critical stock. Who for instance is likely to purchase that remaining seat on the Glasgow to Vladivostock flight departing tomorrow? Well I might, if I could get it for œ20, so the airline has nothing to lose by putting such seats into an auction. British Midland is to begin weekly seat auctions in the new year (http://www.24auction.com). Virgin Express recently sold 948 seats this way.
Britain's traditional market for private sales, regional newspapers, are also about to take the plunge. Next month, England's largest local newspaper group, Newsquest (http://www.thisislancashire.com) will be enticing those who place classifieds to auction items instead. Although paper-based classifieds, particularly in jobs and houses, are starting to lose business to online directories, Simon Gray, New Media Executive at Newsquest, sees online auctions as a continuation of what local newspapers do best.
"Historically, through our classifieds we have had a key role in putting buyer in touch with seller, so the next logical step was e-commerce, particularly auctions," he says. "Initially we expect small collectables like Star Wars figures and stamps to do best, but we've also done deals with retailers who want to sell redundant stock, but can't be seen to be heavily discounting."
Newsquest is also an Internet service provider and hopes readers will be drawn to the auction on their local paper's Web site. To pay for the service, a percentage of the price paid for items in the auction will go to Newsquest.
Online auctions will flourish because they are relatively cheap to set up and everyone has something they want or need to flog. That said, they will never match the excitement of being in a starched and shiny auction room bluffing the guy next to you. He desperately wants the booty while you string him along, raising the price to ludicrous amounts with a scratch of the earlobe.
The web doesn't really do bluff and show very well at the moment, but what about in a more immersive 3D environment ruled by an avatar of an auctioneer wielding a six-foot long gavel?
09 December 1998
|
