Local businesses embrace online auction

As various players in the country’s business community continue to embrace the constant advancements in information technology to boost performances of their businesses, a new online auctioning platform has come on the market.

The online auctioning platform called Bid or Buy Malawi has already attracted participation from various private sector companies trading in various items including construction materials, electronics, vehicles, books, automobiles and clothes, among others.

Owner of Bid or Buy Malawi Abdul Ismail said in an interview this week that the platform is allowing traders to present their goods for bidding by many potential customers regardless of where the customers are.

“This is the first online auction website for Malawi. There are several companies that are already trading onbidorbuymw.com where it is easy to get bids from customers from all over the country,” he said.

Ismail said the online auction platform also allows traders to present their items for viewing and bidding for longer periods than the traditional auctioning system where auctioning may only be open for fewer days.

“As the world is advancing in technology, new ways of doing business are also coming up. One of those new directions is online auctioning system. The online auctioning platform also helps to save time and cost which impact positively on efficiency of organisations,” he said.

According to Wikipedia, an online auction is held over the internet and comes in different formats, but most popularly they are ascending English auction, descending Dutch auction, first prices sealed bid or, sometimes even a combination of multiple auctions, taking elements of one and forging them with another.

The online encyclopedia says the scope and reach of these auctions have been propelled by the Internet to a level beyond what the initial purveyors had anticipated.

This is mainly because online auctions break down and remove the physical limitations of traditional auctions such as geography, presence, time, space and a small target audience.

In 2002, online auctions were projected to account for 30 percent of all online e-commerce due to the rapid expansion of the popularity of electronic commerce.