Proxibid announced new enhanced search functionality and a new practice of displaying seller ratings on its marketplace similar to eBay’s system. It also said it would expand its risk-management system as it continues to grow internationally.
Proxibid is based in Nebraska with offices in New York and London. It works with auction houses, consignors and sellers to offer live auctions, timed auctions and other ways of bringing buyers and sellers together online, including advertising.
Displaying Seller Ratings
The company said seller ratings would help buyers make more informed decisions about which sellers they wished to work with and would create a higher degree of confidence when purchasing in the Proxibid Marketplace.
Similar to eBay’s DSRs, the new seller ratings display a five-star system on five different criteria: item description; shipping cost; shipping time; buyer’s premium; and customer service. The overall rating is displayed along with the total number of ratings.
While buyer comments submitted during the rating process will be shared with sellers, they will not be posted publicly on the website.
Proxibid began allowing buyers to rate sellers in the fall, and waited until this month to display the ratings. It explained at the time of the announcement that it wanted to give sellers an opportunity to adjust their business practices based on buyer feedback before making ratings public.
The seller ratings will display any place a seller’s badging appears – in event lists, event details, and lot details. Buyers can view the full detail of the seller’s rating by clicking on the star icon.
Enhanced Search, Automated Watch Lists, and Other Changes
Proxibid said the enhanced search lets buyers experience a better way to sort and filter through inventory, “creating a browsing experience that is standard to what you expect when shopping online.”
Other new features include the following:
- Add item to watch list when an Offer is made – When a buyer submits an offer on an item on Proxibid, that item will automatically be added to the buyer’s watch list.
- An updated location filter on category pages and browse by links that includes our top four regions: U.S., Canada, Australia, and United Kingdom.
- Our United Kingdom-based buyers can now add top UK mobile carriers within the myprofile page (for SMS text messages): 3, EE, O2, Orange, Vodafone.
- Buyers viewing a live auction can now view the opening bid (or current asking price) on an item available for pre-bidding.
Proxibid will also extend its MarketGuard risk-management to international buyers as it expands international capabilities such as currency and language converters. “The countries that will initially be added to our system for automatic scoring include Canada, Mexico, Australia, United Kingdom and Germany – these countries account for more than 90 percent of all of Proxibid’s international traffic. In the future, we will have the flexibility to easily and quickly add additional countries to our risk management arsenal.”
More information is available on the Proxibid announcement page.
