Traditional Auctions

Auctions are imposing themselves as one of the most successfully means of doing internet eCommerce.

There are two main types of auctions: - Traditional Auctions - The seller offers the product for a base price and shoppers bid for it. The shopper with the higher bid wins the product.
- Reverse Auctions - Buyers define what they what and sellers bid with price / features proposals.
This application implements traditional auctions with the following features:
- organized in categories and sub-categories
- Infinite number of categories and sub-categories (infinite tree)
- Base Price definition:
- Indicative - Buyers may bid bellow the base price
- Reserve - No proposals bellow the base price accepted

- Product Name
- Product detailed description
- Quantity
- Unit Price
- Picture (one per product auction)
- Close Date
- Transaction Currency (defined per auction, bids accepted only in the defined currency).
- Delivery conditions (description)
- Payment conditions (description)
- General Rules
Bids are made with a specified quantity and unit price, and are accepted if there are available units for the given price. If there are higher bids for all of the units in the auction, or the price is bellow the reserve price, the bid is rejected, the bidder being informed of the minimum price accepted.

At the end of the closing day (24h) the bidder with the highest bid and the seller are emailed with each other contacts. the auction may be closed at any given time by the seller, anticipating the closure process.

Bidders need to be registered in a user base, usually the site registration base. This demand may be turned off, allowing anyone identified by an email to bid, regardless of the registration status.

There is a separate interface for administration. This application will normally require some customization to the hosting site "look-and-feel" but may be used "out-of-the-box".