Bidtopia

Infobox_Company
company_name = Bidtopia LLC
company_type = Privately Held
company_slogan = All auctions .99
foundation = 2007
location_city = Memphis, Tennessee
location_country = USA
num_employees = 160 (2007)
industry = Service
homepage = [http://www.bidtopia.com www.bidtopia.com]

Bidtopia is an online auction site originally launched as a sole platform for Bargainland, a company that was the largest eBay seller in 2007. Bidtopia was designed to be a private auction site for Bargainland, and to enhance the typical online auction format with features such as popcorn bidding, a unique feedback system, and requiring that all items have the ability to sell for .99 cents. The initial launch was so popular that Bidtopia has now allowed other sellers with online experience into the marketplace, and added the requirement that seller accounts and bidder accounts be kept separate as their needs and desires are mutually exclusive.

Feedback

Bidder accounts on Bidtopia have what is known as a 'Transaction Score'. Bidtopia believes a bidder has a single obligation in the auction transaction - to buy or pay for their order in a timely fashion. Every time a seller reports back to Bidtopia that a bidder has paid for an item, the Transaction Score of the buyer account will receive a (+1) resulting in an increase by 1 point. This is not a unique score. Rather, bidders may score 2 'transaction points' if they pay for two items from the same seller. If a seller reports back to Bidtopia that a bidder failed to pay in the allotted check out time, then the bidder account will receive a (-1) resulting in a reduction of 1 point to their transaction score. If a seller neither reports the item as paid, or not-paid after a 30 day time period, Bidtopia auctions will presume the transaction was successful and the bidder account will receive a (+1) transaction score. Any bidder account with a transaction score of less than 90%, and 5 or more negative transactions will be suspended from further bidding.

Seller accounts receive "traditional" feedback. Bidders may leave sellers Positive, Negative or Neutral feedback at any time after the completion of the auction, regardless if the item has been paid for or not.

Bidder Verification

In an unusual move, in a market where success is typically measured purely in terms of traffic and number of subscribers, Bidtopia requires that new bidders verify their identity and ability to pay with a .99 cent sign up fee.

Criticism

To avoid Bidtopia acquiring a similar reputation as other auction sites that have issues with fraud and stolen goods, all sellers must be approved by Bidtopia management before being allowed to sell. This means smaller and individual sellers cannot sign up and immediately begin selling through a form or web based auction input device. In fact, Bidtopia has no means to upload an auction except via API or 3rd party tool. This limits the number of seller signups per day, and also limits sellers to those whose volume can support a programming staff, or licensing a tool.

2008 Tornado

Bidtopia's business offices were destroyed in a tornado in February 2008. This resulted in no downtime or loss of service, however telephone contact was unavailable for nearly 48 hours.

2008 Closes

Bidtopia's Utah Division was shut down due to poor management and high rates of 'missing' product.

References

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001488

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/fsb/0802/gallery.ex_ebay_sellers.fsb/2.html

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m12/abu0204/s01

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abu/y207/m12/abu0204/s03

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y08/m02/i07/s01

http://www.wmctv.com/Global/story.asp?s=7832737