Selling
Auctions: Timed Bidding on Your Storefront
Run timed auctions on your storefront with proxy bidding, bid steps, a private reserve, optional Buy It Now and anti-sniping extensions. Winners pay through a private checkout link on your own Stripe account; a winner who does not pay can be replaced by the next bidder.
Overview
Auctions let shoppers bid on an item on your storefront. The highest bid when the auction ends wins, and the winner pays through your normal checkout.
- Proxy bidding. Each bidder enters the most they are willing to pay. The price rises only as far as it must to keep the highest bidder ahead: one bid step above the next-highest maximum. Maximums stay private.
- Bid steps. Use the standard steps, which grow with the price, or one fixed step.
- Reserve and Buy It Now. A private reserve price below which the item does not sell, and an optional Buy It Now price that ends the auction at once.
- No sniping. A bid in the last few minutes extends the end by the same few minutes, so nobody wins by bidding at the last second.
- Safe under pressure. Every bid is decided in the database, one at a time per auction. When two shoppers bid at the same moment, exactly one of them takes each step. A bid and the close, or two Buy It Nows, can never both win.
- Your storefront's time. Start and end times are entered in the storefront's own time zone, including on the days the clocks change.
- Paid on your Stripe account. The winner pays through a private checkout link, exactly like an order. BestWebby never holds the money.
Who can use it. Auctions are included from the Scale plan up. Anyone who can see products can see auctions. Creating, editing and cancelling auctions, second-chance offers and barring bidders need product editing rights.
Create an auction
Go to Channels → Auctions and click New auction.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Storefront | Where the auction runs. Bids are in its currency, and the times you enter are its local time. |
| Item | The product (and option) being sold. It must be published and priced on that storefront, so the winner can check out. |
| Kind of auction | Timed bidding (highest bid wins) or Falling price (the price drops on a schedule and the first to buy wins). |
| Starting price | The first bid must be at least this. |
| Reserve | Optional and private. If bidding does not reach it, the item does not sell. |
| Buy It Now | Optional. Offered until a bid counts (the first bid, or once the reserve is met). |
| Bid steps | Standard steps or one fixed step. |
| Late-bid extension | A bid this many minutes before the end pushes the end out by the same amount. Set 0 to switch it off. |
| Starts / Ends | Local time on the chosen storefront. A time that does not exist because the clocks go forward is refused; during the hour that repeats when the clocks go back, the first occurrence is used. |
| Winner pays within | Hours the winner has to pay through their link. |
| Second chance | If the winner does not pay, offer the item to the next highest bidder at their highest bid, automatically. |
An auction can be edited until the first bid. After that its terms stand; you can still cancel it, and bidders are told.
What shoppers see
Your storefront lists auctions at /auctions, and a product with a live auction shows it on its page. The auction page shows the current price, the next minimum bid, the time left, whether the reserve has been met, and the bid history under bidder numbers ("Bidder 3"). Names, emails and maximums are never shown.
To bid, a shopper signs in with an emailed link (so the winner can always be reached) and registers for the auction, agreeing to pay if they win. They enter their maximum and see at once whether they are the highest bidder. If someone outbids them they get one email, until they bid again.
Your own team cannot register or bid on your store's auctions from the storefront.
When an auction ends
Auctions close automatically within a couple of minutes of their end.
- Sold. The winner is emailed a private checkout link at the winning price, for the payment window you chose. The unit is taken out of stock for them at once, so it cannot be sold to someone else meanwhile; their checkout does not take it again.
- Reserve not met. Nothing sells. The highest bidder is told. You can still offer them the item at their highest bid (see below).
- No bids. Nothing sells.
You are notified of every result.
If the winner does not pay
When the payment window runs out, the unit goes back into stock, the bidder is marked as not having paid, and you are told. If Second chance is on, the next highest bidder who has not already had an offer is emailed a private link to buy it at their own highest bid (only if that bid meets your reserve). This repeats up to three times.
You can also make a second-chance offer yourself: open the auction and click Offer at … next to a bidder. Maximums are shown to you only once the auction has ended.
Barred bidders
From an auction's bidder list, Bar stops that email from registering, bidding or buying on any of your auctions. Manage the list under Channels → Auctions → Barred bidders. Bids already placed stand, but a barred bidder never wins: if they still lead when the auction ends, nothing is sold, no stock is held, and you can offer the item to another bidder at their highest bid. A barred bidder is never offered a second chance. To void the bids outright, cancel the auction.
Notifications
| Notification | When |
|---|---|
| An auction ended | Sold (the winner has their link), reserve not met, or no bids. Emailed by default. |
| An auction winner did not pay | The payment window ran out; the item went back into stock or to the next bidder. |
Privacy
A shopper's own data download includes their auction registrations and bids. Erasing a customer replaces their name and email on bids and registrations and kills their payment links, while keeping the record of the auction.