The concept of mobile bidding silent auction has taken off in a big way in recent times after the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to stay indoors and social distancing norms being strictly followed.

The scenario in traditional auctions have always been focused on active interaction of the participants. Items are displayed in a big hall at least some days before the auction. People sit in the bidding venue as the auction goes on. The winners make payment for winning bids and in many cases take the items along with them.

But in Covid times, these close contacts are a strict no-no and hence, the mobile bidding silent auction is here to stay. The name of the auction is such as the whole process is carried out silently over the Internet through sites that are dedicated to online auctions with bidders located in all the four corners of the globe. All that the bidders have to do is to be on the site live during the auctions and place bids through any Internet-enabled device.

At a mobile bidding silent auction, the items are displayed on the site well before the bidding date. It is not possible though, like traditional auctions, to put unlimited items up for display online as the website pages spaces are limited.

Further, many sites also limit the number of photos of one item to save space. Hence it is critical for organizers to promote their auction as much as possible by creating a buzz on social media and email marketing. The whole activity from promotion to product display to bidding is carried out online in a mobile bidding silent auction.

Every bidder has to first register on the website conducting the auction before taking part in the bidding. The database so created can be later used to interact with the bidders if required. Next, each item at a mobile bidding silent auction is allotted a number on the bidding sheet and participants have to bid from their smartphoneaccording to that number. The bidding sheet is available to all registered participants.

A mobile bidding silent auction has a pre-fixed start and end time just like a traditional auction. This encourages the bidders to bid quickly and avoid a tendency to take their own time over a bid since there is no person physically present to monitor the auction.

A point of difference between a tradition auction and mobile bidding silent auction is the way the items are listed. While in the former case there is no fixed rule and the items are placed in a random order, in the latter case it is from low to high-priced items. The logic is that if the bidders opt for an expensive item first, the others will not be bid upon and remain unsold.

These are the primary differences between traditional and mobile bidding silent auction.