We are all familiar with the best way of selling an item at highest price: AUCTION. Auction is an arrangement where the item/items are put on display and the buyers can bid their costs during the session. The highest bid wins the auction.
Now, what if a user is looking for the least cost available for specific product/service? Can we use this same strategy to get the lowest price?
The answer is YES. It is absolutely possible through what we call as: Reverse Auction. In Reverse auction, the roles get reversed. The buyer can share the details of the required product/services and sellers can bid with their best amount as offer. Opposite to the forward auction, in reverse auction, the lowest bidder wins the auction.
Reverse Auction is an effective approach when many sellers are available in the market and price is the most important factor in selecting the vendor.
Depending on the product/service in question, regular reverse auction can lead to a lot of money saving in the long run. It can be a game changer for the industries requiring regular transport services. Using this, the producers can find their clients and carriers who can provide transportation services at conceivably lower prices and in a faster as well as more efficient way. The carriers also get the chance to provide their services to a large number of sellers.
Although this is an effective approach to get the fair price, but is the hassle of conducting live auction and bid collection arrangements, all worth it!!
Convexicon has surveyed the issues faced by buyers conducting reverse auctions and have built a SMART LOGISTICS BIDDING PLATFORM as the solution. It is a digital platform providing the online transport bidding solution, where the buyer can post the goods or services details and conduct the auction. The buyer can set the appropriate time for the auction and can invite bidders to place a bid. The participants get a notification regarding the time, start and end of the auction and can place their bid during the auction. They can also view the winning bid rate so that they can analyze their costs to fetch better business in future.
E-Bidding Solutions save a lot of hassle and time that would have been consumed in otherwise live bidding sessions. The sellers and buyers can participate in the auction directly from their mobile phones and don’t need to actually visit a place.
KEY BENEFITS OF E-BIDDING SOLUTIONS
1. Buyers can find the real price without paying extra
2. Major time saving in gathering bids from the suppliers/vendors/service providers
3. Automated decision making
4. Full transparency, giving sellers a better platform to reach multiple buyers
5. No dependency on single seller/buyer- Increased access to buyers/sellers
Let’s walkthrough the process followed for reverse auction:
1. Request for proposal or request for quotation published by the buyers
The buyer can start the reverse auction by publishing the request for proposal (RFP) or request for quotation (RFQ) on the app. This includes the specifications of the product/services the buyer is looking for and required deadline.
The buyer will also set an initial amount and bidding criteria. The bid criteria are set as x-y where x is the initial price or last bid amount during the auction and y is a deduction set by the buyers. For an example, a bid may start at 100$ and first bid will be 100$-5$, second bid will be 95-5$ and so on.
The buyer will also set the time for auction which includes auction date, start and end time.
2. Buyer can upload the bidder list
Once the RFP/RFQ is shared, the buyer can upload the bidder list with their contact information on which the bidding invites will be sent.
The buyer can also choose the auction to be public, allowing all the app users to bid, as per the business requirement.
3. Sellers submit bids based on the RFP/RFQ details
During the auction, the sellers can submit their bid and can view the winning bid amount. The sellers can remain competitive and can modify their bid to win the auction.
4. Find/announce the winning bid
Once the bidding session is over, the buyer can view the bids submitted by different sellers and can make the final decision. Convexicon’s e-bidding solution also provides the automated feature to declare the winning bid as soon as the auction closes.
We can provide you various customizations, as per your business requirement. To schedule a quick meeting, click here.
Once, the winning bidder is notified/announced, the two parties can communicate to determine their terms of agreement to get the work fulfilled.
One of the leading tiles brands of the country, Kajaria Ceramics is already using the Convexicon’s freight bidding software for their online transport bidding solutions. They use this software for managing their day-to-day reverse auctions for transport services.
Apart from the logistics industry, the reverse auction can be beneficial for various industries including construction services, day care services, wholesale industry and more. If you think your business can benefit from the e-bidding solution, feel free to have a discussion with us. We will provide you free of cost consultation and a bidding solution customized as per your business requirement.
To get a live demo of the product, click here.