Online Auction Application | Everything you need to know

Are you interested in auction activities and want to invest in one? Here is a good option for you to do this. You can invest in online auction applications and earn great returns. Here, we have assembled various pieces of information regarding online auction applications. Let’s have a detailed look at these specifics.

How Does an Auction App Work?

Online auctions are becoming very popular and demanding platforms. On such platforms, you can buy or sell almost anything you want. Since these are used products, you can get many offers on them and finalize a great deal. Some of the most popular auction apps in India include OLX and eBay.

An auction app lists all the products that a person wants to sell. Those who are interested in buying those items, try to bid the highest to buy them. The one with the highest bid wins and gets the product and pays the seller the promised amount for it. Just like offline auctions, online ones also give buyers a limited time to bid on the items. So, you have to be quick to get the best offer on any product sold on these platforms.

Types of Auction Apps

Auctions apps are not just of a single type. There are several types of auctions app that provides variations to the auction process. Let’s see some of the major types of auction apps so you can choose which one you want to develop.

English Auction: It is the most basic type of online auction. Here, the bid starts with a suggested price and the highest bid wins.

Dutch Auction: It is the opposite of the English auction. Here, the auction starts with the highest price and then the bid gets lower till an acceptable offer.

Penny Auction: It starts with a minimum price and there are fixed increments from participants until the offer lasts. The highest bidder wins and every participant has to pay a non-refundable fee to place their increment bid.

Double Auction: In this type of auction, the trade takes place when the buyer’s price and the seller’s asking price match.

Vickery Auction: Here, the highest bidder wins but has to pay the second-highest bid to buy the item.

Sealed Bid Auction: No one knows the other participants' bidding amount. The highest bidder wins.

Beginner Auctions: It is the type of auction in which only the new users of the app can bid.

Seat Auctions: Here, only a few privileged bidders can bid an extra amount for an item.

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Benefits of Auction Applications

Online auction apps can be very beneficial for a business. If you are looking forward to investing in an auction application then you will get the following benefits.

Larger Bidding Window – Auction applications allow users to bid online and thus it allows them to have a long time to bid for the products. This provides them with a wider window to bid.

Extensive Reach – Being an online platform, auction applications help in increasing the range of the audience. It provides the auction with a wider reach for bidders to bid.

Zero Logistics Cost – Since everything happens here online, you do not need any warehouse to store items, no supply chain process involves, and no caring for items to showcase to customers. Thus, it reduces the logistics cost.

No Language Barrier – As an application can be used in various languages, thus there is no language barrier in proper communication. Everyone can communicate exactly what they want to convey.

Features that you should include in your Auction App

There are so many important features that you need to include in your auction application to make it stand out in the market. Let’s have a thorough look at them.

User Profile

Since the auction app is for both sellers and buyers, the users should have the option to switch profiles between seller and buyer. Both the profile sections should have the management panel to delete and create new profiles for smooth functioning. This would make your auction app a one-stop solution for both sellers and buyers.

Auction Details

There should be a section to display all the details about the ongoing and upcoming auctions. These details include the time of the auction, bidding details like highest or lowest, the type of auction, detail of the item to be auctioned, etc. This would help your users to stay updated with all the auction details so they can bid on the items they want to buy. The user would also get notifications regarding these auction details.

Smart Search

Your auction application should also have the feature of smart search so the users can search for any item with the use of photos or their voice. This would ease the search for your users and also make your app technologically advanced in the software market.

Payment Gateways

This is a very necessary feature to add to your auction app. There must be online payment integration to make payments possible for buyers and sellers. Your auction app must support a payment gateway to allow users to make monetary transactions.

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Bidding and Auction Management

There should be a feature to delete and edit the bids if required. But there should also be certain stages where these changes are possible, otherwise, anyone would change the bids as per their convenience.

Reviews and Ratings

Reviews are necessary to know the true nature of the vendor and the reality of the item bought. This would help people to invest their money in the right place without being played. Also, users can rate their experience with a particular vendor or item to let others know about it.

Product Categories

Categorisation makes it easy for users to find the required item among the vast pool of available products. They can easily search in the defined categories for the desired product which will save them time and energy. If users can do their tasks quickly and easily on your app, then it will surely increase their satisfaction level.

Auction Guidelines

A small section defining the auction guidelines would be very helpful for those who are not familiar with the rules of online auctions. This would help them understand the auction better. All the users can follow the given guidelines and stay on track with the rules and regulations of auctions.

Shopping Cart

There should also be an option for adding items to a shopping cart so users can buy multiple items at the same time. This would help them to participate in different auctions at the same time and pay for the items at once instead of paying separately for every item they bought.

Newsletter

It would be very convenient for your users to know about various auction events happening around them through these newsletters. This would also make your app look standardised and well-established. You can also add the feature of blogs, articles, etc. to make your auction app more attractive.

Social Sharing

You can also add a social sharing feature to your app to help your users to share the auction details with their friends and family. This would help them consider the opinions of others to buy the right item at the right price.

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Steps to Create an Auction Application

Creating an application is a complex process and involves various steps to accomplish a high-quality result. Following are the steps which you can follow to create an outstanding auction application. Let’s have a through look at these steps.

Researching

Researching should be the first step to begin with anything new. If you are investing in an auction app development, you must know the variations in the apps, the scope of auction apps in the market, the cost you are going to bear, the benefits you would get, and much more. In this blog, we have answered most of these questions so you can take the right decision as per your needs and wants. Without proper research, you can never get the best results. So, this is a very important step in the auction app development process.

Planning

When you have researched everything that you need to do to develop a fantastic auction application, you need to plan out everything and set a goal. In this step, you have to define your goals and expectations from the app. You have to plan out a map to reach that goal. Here you decide how your application would look like and how you are going to collect all the resources to reach your goal. In this step, you also have to select the mobile app development company which you will hire for your auction app development. other than this, you have to take many more such important decisions that will decide the quality of your app.

Feature Selection

It is also a very important thing to determine. We have seen lots of features that you can add to your auction app. Most of those features are necessary to add to an auction application but you can also add more features to make your app stand out. There are so many amazing features like credit points, fun animations, in-app chat with customised emojis, creative profile icons, etc. which you can add to your app.

Budget Setting

When you have researched and planned which type of auction app you are going to build, you need to set a budget to make your app idea a reality. You need to keep in mind the demand of an auction app and the estimated returns it will give you in future before setting a budget. Your plan about the addition of types of features will act as guidance to set an estimated cost you will bear. Your budget will also define the quality of your app.

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Tech Stack Selection

Choosing the right technology to build an app is necessary to bring out the best in the market. There are so many mobile app development frameworks available in the market that can create an auction application. You need to choose the most suitable one according to your goals. For this, you can take suggestions from the development team that you hire for your application to select the best tech stack for your auction app. You can also take a suggestion from the following:

Prototyping

Once you have planned everything, set a budget, determined the features, selected the tech stack, and hire an app development company to create your auction app, you have to let the development team work on your idea. They will give you a prototype based on your idea of an auction app and you can improvise as per your need. You can add new features and make your app competitive.

Testing

No app can be developed without testing properly. It is necessary to robustly test the application before launching it to the live market. In this step, all the errors are removed and the quality of your app is increased to a great extent. Testing will help in eliminating the negative points and enhancing the positive ones. This will make the overall app error-free and qualitative.

Launching

When you are done with everything about your app and have tested everything regarding your app, you need to launch it on downloading platforms like Google Play Store, Apple App Store, etc. For this, you need to register your app on various app stores so the general public can download and use it.

Marketing

The app development process does not complete once the app is launched on the app stores. You need to promote your auction app in the marketing to let people know about it. If they do not know about your app, how would they download and use it? So, you need to conduct marketing campaigns to promote your auction app.

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Cost and Time required to develop an Auction App

An auction app development is a costly investment but it also gives high returns later. So, if you are planning on investing in an auction app you need to know how much it can cost you. Well, an auction app development can averagely cost between $14,000-$17,000. As the auction app development cost depends on the type of app and the inclusion of complex features, it can also cost you up to $30,000-$45,000. That is why you need to set a budget and the features accordingly.

Now the time estimated to develop an auction app can range from 430-450 hrs. Just like the cost, the time taken to create the app also depends on the quality of the app. A simple app can be built quickly but a complex one requires more time. Thus, it all depends on the type of app and its complexity.

Some of the Top Auction Apps in the Market

You can find a number of online auction applications in the market that are highly prevalent and popular among common people. We have listed some of them here. Let’s have a look.  

• Bidkart
• eBay
• FindAuction
• Bidzapp
• Bidderboy
• Dreembox
• OLX
• eAuction
• Manheim
• eBid
• SmartAuction

How can Coherent Lab help you with it?

Coherent Lab is one of the top mobile app development companies in India and can help you with creating an outstanding online auction application. We have a well-organised team of qualified professionals who can provide you with extraordinary services related to an auction application. You can contact us anytime to clear your doubts about anything related to your app development process. We are happy to help you. You can get the contact details on our website.