FAQ Online Auctions

1. How can I run a test or dry run of Online and Mobile Bidding without affecting my live event site?
2. Can I test bidding directly on my real event site?
3. What are the risks of testing bidding on my site?
4. Can I invite team members or volunteers to help test mobile bidding?
5. How do I send test invitations to bid from a test site?

A: To conduct a dry run of Online and Mobile Bidding (Plus, Professional subscriptions),  follow these steps:

Since it looks like your items and settings are set up - the best way to do a dry run is to create a new event site (name it "TEST"), then migrate all of your data and settings to the test site so you can do the dry run without affecting your actual site/data.

While it may seem simpler to create a few test items on your site, be aware that once bidding has taken place, you will not be able to delete items, and you may not be able to completely unwind any test transactions. The other potential downside of testing on your actual event site is the risk of inadvertently triggering invites or messages to your supporters. . .

To create a test site:
1. Create a New Event Site named "TEST": Creating a New Event
2. Use the Migration Tool to SELECT ALL data/settings to essentially clone your real site data to your test site: 
Migrating (Copying) Settings and Data From a Previous Event Site + Video
3. Edit the opening/closing viewing and bidding times on the test site to concur with your "test run". You can bulk edit the item times: Viewing and Editing Opening and Closing Times
4. You may want to issue comp tickets to your testers. Setting Up Tickets to Sell at Check-in. But if your goal is just to preview and test mobile bidding, you can simply send them invites to bid from the user page. Sending Invitations to Bid
Now you're ready to test. It's a great idea to involve members of your team, but also a few people who haven't been involved at all, to gain a true idea of how "clear" your instructions are and for feedback on any parts of the process they may find confusing.
5. Keeping in mind that your test site has a different URL than your real site, send your team whatever prompt(s) you'll be using to launch online bidding. Once your testing is over, be sure that all links/materials display the correct URL for your real event site.

1. How do I close my Online Auction?
2. Can I delay awarding items after bidding closes?
3. How long does it take for items to be awarded after bidding ends?
4. How often are outbid notifications sent to bidders?
5. What should I tell guests about checking their bids during a mobile auction?
6. What should I do if I plan to extend online bidding?

A: Here's what you need to know about Online/Mobile Bidding:

Closing Time and Automatic Closeout:

• Online/mobile Bidding stops precisely at the specified closing time for each item.
• Items are not awarded (placed in carts) until you enable Automatic Closeout in Site Settings > Online/Mobile Bidding > Bidding Settings. You can activate this before your event or after reviewing high bids. If there's any chance you might extend bidding beyond the closing time, avoid enabling Automatic Closeout in advance.

After Bidding Closes:

• Once bidding closes and Automatic Closeout is enabled, items are awarded to the highest bidder, and notifications are sent via email. This process occurs when the server refreshes, which may take up to 15 minutes.

Browsing and Refreshing:

• New bids appear instantly in the web catalog, but users may need to refresh their browsers to see the latest activity, depending on their settings. Most browsers automatically refresh when navigating within the catalog each time an item is opened.

Email Notifications:

• Outbid emails/notifications are sent immediately, but their arrival in users' inboxes depends on email settings and service. Typically, smartphones check for new messages every 15 minutes by default to conserve data.

Recommendations for Bidders:

• Due to varying device visibility and internet speeds, it's advisable not to rely solely on instant updates for bidding. Instead, consider enabling Extended and/or Maximum Bidding options to ensure all bids are captured. Learn more about these options: Extended Bidding Option.

Illustrated Instructions for Online/Mobile Bidding: Closing Online/Mobile Bidding and Awarding Items 

1. What happens if an item is marked for both online and paper bidding?
2. Why weren’t some of my online items awarded to the high bidder when the auction closed?
3. How can I bulk edit the bidding style of multiple catalog items?
4. Why did none of my online items get awarded after closing?
5. What are the steps for awarding transferred items after my event ends?

A: To check if any of your catalog items are set to transfer from Online/Mobile Bidding to Paper Bidding at your gala, go to your Catalog page. Click the Customize button and add the Online Bidding and Paper Bidding columns to your view. Then filter the catalog to Gala items and review any Silent items showing "Yes" in both columns.

If an item is set to transfer to paper bidding, it will not be automatically awarded to the high online bidder at the close of the online auction. If this is not your intended setup, you can use the Bulk Edit tool to change the bidding style for those items. See: Bulk Edit Multiple Items AND Bidding Style

If your Online/Mobile Items are marked to transfer to paper bidding at your gala event, and you have disabled Auto-Award, NONE of your Online items will be awarded to winners until you have enabled Auto-Award. If you enable auto-award now, ONLY your Online/Mobile Items will be awarded to high bidders at closing time, but the items transferring to paper bidding will NOT. 

You can enable auto-award at Site Settings > Events > Online Auction/Mobile Bidding > Bidding Settings. 

If any items do not receive a higher bid at the gala or virtual event, you will need to take an additional step to award them to the high online bidder(s): Awarding Transferred Items to High Online Bidder

1. How do I organize a successful online Silent auction?
2. How many Items should I include in my Online auction?
3. How do I transition gala auction items to online only?

A: Occasionally, organizations need to cancel their in-person galas. That’s a difficult choice to make. While there are way too many factors involved in this decision to tell you what you should do, we can weigh in on what you can do if you decide that you don't want to move forward with your in-person gala.

Instead of canceling your fundraising efforts, you can run a pure Online Auction. If this is of interest to you, here's how to get started.

While online-only events can’t replicate the energy that drives up bidding at in-person events, there are some steps you can take to maximize their fundraising potential:

Run your online auction in stages, starting with a well-curated Silent auction. A well-curated auction includes items that have broad appeal, display well in your catalog, and are likely to generate lots of bidding interest. If you have a large selection of gift cards, be aware that these don’t often yield much online income. But you may be able to combine some of those gift cards with other items and create more interesting auction packages. For instance, if you’ve received a lot of restaurant gift cards, you could create a Give the Cook a Month Off package.

When it comes to online auctions, less is more. Ideally, you want to get 5 - 9 bids per silent item in order to maximize earnings. This means offering fewer items. Think about the number of people likely to bid in your online auction, and limit the number of items you’re offering to 35% of that amount. That means if you expect 100 people to bid, you’ll want about 35 Silent online items in your catalog. If you’ve already procured more items than you need, set some aside for a future event and/or combine some of them into more appealing packages.

Follow up your Silent online auction with an online “Live” auction. Convert your Live auction items to Silent items and set up a separate bidding group for them, so that they open after your Silent auction closes.

Promote the heck out of these items. Be sure to send your supporters an invitation to bid. Remind them to bid high and bid often to support the good work your organization does. Update and resend your invitation to bid daily with a list of who leads the bidding for your most competitive items. Include a list of items that are “too-good-to-be-true” deals to goose bidding on those. The goal is to spur a sense of heightened competition among your bidders.

Use the Extended Bidding feature, so that any item with active bidding near closing time automatically remains open to capture last-minute bids.

Use Max Bidding so that bids are placed faster.

Be sure to turn on Outbid notices! 

After your online “Live” auction closes, tally up what you’ve earned from your Silent and Live items. How close are you to meeting your goal, or to what you typically earn at your gala auction?

Now it’s time to launch an online invitation to give. This will serve as your virtual Paddle Raise. Edit your invitation to give to thank everyone for their support thus far. Let them know how much they’ve raised already, and how much your organization still needs to meet its goals. Remind them of all the great things their donations support.

You can raise money for a single fund or multiple funds. Plus level and Professional level subscribers can set up Recurring Donations on their sites.

Finally, make sure to edit the text at the top of your Give page to highlight your appeal. If you want to produce a short video appeal to appear there, we can help you embed that at the top of the page.

1. What’s the process for adding a reserve price to an online auction item?
2. How do I configure reserve bidding for an online auction item?
3. Where do I set a reserve amount for online bidding items?

A: Currently, our software doesn't have specific settings to manage Reserve Amounts. 

However, there's a workaround that other customers have successfully used with the Max Bidding Style:

1. Set up your online item(s) as usual (See: Entering Items: Tips and FAQ), ensuring the Minimum Bid amount is higher than the reserve amount. Include a note in the Item Description indicating that the item has a reserve.
2. Create a Faux Online Bidder with a username like "Reserve" or "Reserve Not Met" (See: Overview: User Records).
3. When the bidding opens, place Proxy Bids for the Faux Bidder (or log in as the faux bidder) with Maximum bids equal to the reserve amount for each item. Initially, these bids will register at the Minimum Bid amount until other bidders surpass them (See: Placing Proxy Bids (Acorn/Plus/Professional).
4. Any bids below the reserve will trigger an immediate message on-screen: "You have been outbid by an existing max bid".
5. Once bidding exceeds the reserve amount, bids will be accepted as usual.
6. At the close of bidding, items will be awarded to the highest bidders. Items that did not meet the reserve will
   remain in the Faux user's cart. If you decide to award an item below the reserve price, you can do so using the Return Item link in the Faux cart/order from the Orders page(See: Editing An Order From The Order Page + Video), and selecting the "cancel bid and award to next highest bidder" option (See: Canceling Individual Bids).

1. How do I test the bidding process?
2. How do I simulate the bidding process before my auction goes live?
3. Can volunteers/staff bid in our Online Auction?

A: To see how the bidding experience works for your guests, head to your Public-Facing Catalog page by logging out of your event site and clicking on the Catalog link/button. Then click on any item to place a bid—you’ll be prompted to Signup to Bid.

Once you enter your information, you’ll get a cheerful message:
“Good news! You’re already in the system!”

From there, just check your email for a direct link to start bidding.

1. How can we reverse or fix bids while the auction is live?
2. How can we correct a bid for a guest?
3. How can we edit a bid that was placed?

A: Individual bids can’t be edited, but they can be canceled.

If a bid needs to be changed, you can cancel the original bid: Canceling Individual Bids.

After that, the bidder can place a new bid—or you can do it for them using the Proxy Bid tool: Placing Proxy Bids (Acorn/Plus/Professional)