Digital marketplaces, including online auctions, are sprouting in almost every category of goods and services that you can think of these days.
This is no different when it comes to procuring transport for the online auction space as online freight marketplaces provide an easy facility for online bidders and customers to conveniently list their items for transport and choose their providers, all within one platform.
Gone are the days where the auctioneer would provide a piece of paper with suggested locally based transport companies to the customer and expect them to do the very inconvenient ring around.
These days, in our new normal, the way of organising transport by auction customers has taken a decidedly digital twist, not surprisingly so, in line with so many other recently acquired shopping behaviours, accelerated, of course, by the ongoing pandemic.
As Loren Padelford, Vice President at Shopify Inc says:”Covid has acted like a time machine: it brought 2030 to 2020,”
For the auction customer, being provided with a simple online facility to organise their transport is required, now more than ever.
Auction customers tend to be located further afield too, particularly for those high consideration larger items, so having access to a wider choice of transport providers who can deliver the items anywhere nationwide is preferable.
The actual process of carrying out a transport booking via an online freight marketplace is also so much easier, and more streamlined too. Secure and contact-less transactions, transit insurance and more add to their reliability too.
1. The customer lists their item details that needs delivering for FREE
2. They receive competitive Quotes through the Truckit platform
3. The customer then compares and chooses a Provider
They can also compare ratings and feedback of providers to choose the best fit for your job
They then simply need to click 'accept' to confirm their preferred quote and that's it, job booked!
4. Manage, Receive and Rate
The customer can then keep in touch with their chosen provider through the booking and delivery process using the different status changes and private messaging.
Once the item is delivered the customer is required to rate the provider's performance based on their level of service. This is another big reason for the emergence of online freight marketplaces, as per many other digital marketplaces such as eBay, Airbnb hosts etc., ratings and reviews.
Remember those locally based transport providers mentioned earlier? Well, these Local transport Providers can also still deliver goods within the local community for locally based auction customers, via an online freight marketplace. In this way, today's online freight marketplaces can assist local customers, and satisfy the needs of those distant online auction customers too, making them a natural fit for online auctioneers’ needs.
At market or below market prices
Online freight marketplaces also tend to generate competitive transport prices, by virtue of the fact that transport providers can compete to secure the customer’s listing. This can result in transport rates at market or below market rates, often comparable or even better than those ongoing contractual freight arrangements negotiated by businesses.
For the online auctioneer, by making it so much easier for auction bidders to organise their transport needs via an online freight marketplace, this improved overall experience will logically lead to fewer abandoned carts and more repeat business.
There are operational benefits too, such as faster clearing of items offsite, in line with a more efficient transport procurement process as provided via the online platform.
Bottom line, just as auctions are trending online to answer customers’ needs and buying behaviours, the procurement of transport via online freight marketplaces is taking a very similar route, and they are a natural fit for the online auction environment.
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