Online auctions continue to prosper. Web visitors to the top 10 auction sites in this article were up over 25% in the past three months alone.
Online auction participants are drawn by the potential of bargain prices, the wide range of available products to bid on, and the thrill that comes in anticipation of an auction win.
Web auctions are also convenient. Twenty-four hours a day, consumers can participate from any computer with an Internet connection. In addition, items are listed for a set number of days. This gives shoppers ample time to search, price and bid on specific products before the auction deadline.
In this review, Internet traffic statistics for 10 of the most heavily visited online auctions are compared. However, Amazon and Yahoo! Auctions were excluded, since Alexa’s online traffic reporting tool only provides statistics for their main home pages (Amazon.com and Yahoo.com).
Online Auction Websites with Highest Page Views
The following list shows the most popular discount coupon sites ranked by their average monthly page views. As the world’s leading auction site, eBay generates 25 times more monthly visits than its nearest competitor, Site Sell.
- eBay … 6 billion monthly page views (up 19.9% over prior 3 months)
- Site Sell … 243.9 million monthly page views (up 67%)
- Overstock … 159.6 million monthly page views (up 36.6%)
- Bid or Buy (South Africa) … 44.9 million monthly page views (down 9.4%)
- Gun Broker … 32.3 million monthly page views (up 13%)
- Bidz … 29.2 million monthly page views (up 63.4%)
- Shop Goodwill … 13.4 million monthly page views (up 30.1%)
- Swoopo … 7.9 million monthly page views (down 5.5%)
- eBid … 5.7 million monthly page views (up 9.5%)
- uBid … 4.5 million monthly page views (up 17%).
Led by Site Sell and Bidz, 8 of the above auction sites increased their online visits over past 3 months by percentages as high as 67%. Only Swoopo and South Africa’s Bid or Buy experienced percentage declines.
Online Auction Sites Attracting Most Visitors
Below are the most popular auction portals with the greatest number of monthly visitors.
- eBay … 364.9 million monthly visitors (average 16.5 page visits per user daily)
- Overstock … 21.3 million monthly visitors (7.5)
- Site Sell … 16.7 million monthly visitors (14.6)
- Bidz … 4.4 million monthly visitors (6.7)
- Bid or Buy (South Africa) … 3.8 million monthly visitors (11.8)
- Gun Broker … 2.5 million monthly visitors (12.8)
- Swoopo … 1.9 million monthly visitors (4.2)
- eBid … 939,977 monthly visitors (6.1)
- uBid … 868,921 monthly visitors (5.2)
- Shop Goodwill … 729,890 monthly visitors (18.3).
eBay visitors visit a comparatively high number of web pages, thanks to eBay’s diverse inventory of products and powerful search tools. Ironically, only the smallest competitor Shop Goodwill averages more page views per user.
Top 5 Online Auction Portals
eBay receives the 9th most Internet visits of all websites in the United States. As a service to hundreds of millions of registered users worldwide, eBay provides a daily snapshot called Pulse that presents the most popular searches and most watched items.
Overstock’s auction website sells a combination of surplus merchandise, new products and used items. Overstock organizes products into over 30 categories including As Seen on TV and even Real Estate. Some products on Overstock are hand-made by workers in developing countries. Others are overproduced, discontinued or returned items from retailers.
Site Sell services entrepreneurs who want to sell their products online from their own auction websites. Site Sell provides web auction software and business coaching, training auction sellers how to earn residual income and other benefits from their private auction sites.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Bidz specializes in auctions for brand-name jewelry, watches and accessories from sunglasses to fine art. Advertised brands include Chanel, Faberge, Gucci, Rolex, Valentino and Versace.
Billed as Africa’s largest online marketplace, South Africa’s Bid or Buy had 31 high-level categories for auction items and many hundreds of product subcategories. For example, the Cars category currently has auctions for almost 11,000 automobiles. Bid or Buy generates 26% of its online traffic from search engine results, far more than the 10% that eBay garners from online searches.
Other Popular Online Auction Sites
Atlanta-based Gun Broker is an auction site that specializes in the sale of firearms. Both buyers and sellers must be legally qualified to own the rifles and pistols auctioned on the site. The Federal Firearms License Holder networks assists with the legal transfer of firearms after an online auction closes.
Swoopo’s online auction site is based in Munich, Germany. Prospective buyers must first purchase credits before they are allowed to make Swoopo bids. On Swoopo, all participants pay money to bid – whether or not they win the auctioned item.
eBid has separate auction sites for 18 countries, 12 of which are in Europe. eBid collects a small percentage fee from the seller when an auctioned item is sold.
uBid online auctions are only open to U.S. residents. uBid only allows established businesses that it has pre-approved to list products on its site. uBid focuses on new, overstock and refurbished consumer electronics including cell phones and computers, but also offer auctions in many other categories from appliances to musical instruments.
Shop Goodwill is home to an online auction of donated goods. While the site has the fewest number of items up for auction, its home page is well-organized and easy to navigate.
Sources
This article provides independent calculations and insights based on data from the leading Internet traffic monitoring site, Alexa. The above statistics were calculated using a comparative benchmark of 24 million monthly visitors to the Suite101 website averaged over the past 3 months.
Daniel Workman - A senior business and finance writer who also does French translations, notably international trade and insurance materials.
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