Get the most out of your auction by following these simple tips and tricks.
The auction on OpenDairy is a powerful and easy way to sell your product. In this article you will learn how to get the most out of your auction.
TLDR;
First of all the auction title, this is where you catch your audience by describing in a few words the product you are offering. Be to the point and include the most important and positive characteristics.
Example: SMP MH, July production, Min 35% protein As Is, 25 kg bags
The description field allows you to elaborate about what you’re offering. This can be about the product, packaging but you can also mention specific terms, for instance if a product is not suitable for export.
Take the time to explain your offer, you have 500 characters so don’t be shy!
If supplying a certain document can benefit the buyers, you can use the upload feature to include it.
Select the packaging the product is currently in. If you are able to deliver in other packagings as well, mention this in the description field.
The price is probably one of the most important settings of your auction.
You don’t want to set a price that is too high, as it might scare off buyers from the get go. But you also don’t want to set it too low, as a bid at your ask price creates an obligation for you to sell.
It is important to realize that buyers can also bid below the price that you set. Obviously this doesn’t obligate you to sell to those buyers, but you can decide to do so once the auction ends. There’s a two-hour grace period after the auction in which you can look at the available bids and decide to accept or decline them.
So the price you set (either in EUR, USD or both) should be attractive to the buyers and acceptable for you. If you are offering to a variety of different client types (for instance direct local clients, traders and international buyers), you can consider creating multiple auctions at different price levels for these different groups. They can be easily targeted using buyer groups. Just be careful to not oversell your available volumes!
If you are unsure about the best pricing, don’t hesitate to ask us for advice. Our experts are continuously ’in the market’ so they can most likely tell you what the best strategy is.
Together with price, auction duration and the buyers you invite also have a great effect on auction success rates.
Shorter auctions tend to create a sense of urgency with buyers, as they don’t want to miss out and need to act quickly. But be careful to not set it too short as buyers need to have time to respond.
We have seen the best results on auctions that last between 24 and 72 hours.
Chances are that a buyer might not need the exact volume that you're offering. You can still cater to these buyers by offering a splittable auction, allowing you to sell to multiple buyers in one auction.
So let’s say you have 150mt to sell and you set your minimum volume buyers can bid on to 25mt. Buyers that want to bid on less than 150mt can then do so in increments of 25mt.
Theoretically the auction can end with 6 different buyers (each buying 25mt), potentially giving you the best return.
The general rule of thumb when inviting buyers is: the more you invite the better are your chances of a successful auction.
But think about your buyers well, as you don’t want to offer to clients that don’t need or cannot buy your product.
For instance: if your product is not suitable for export, don’t invite export buyers to your auction. Or if you know that certain clients are not interested in the specific product you’re auctioning, leave them out of the selection as well.
You can manage your buyers by using buyer groups, which allows you to select specific subsets of users in auctions with ease.
Don’t forget, we are here to help at any time. We have quite some experience running auctions so we can certainly advise you on how to be most successful.
Good luck with your auctions!
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