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Steve Marbit auction guru at Truition recently noticed that we just launched our 100,000,000 auction listing!
 
http://auction.mlb.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=99653290&prmenbr=33072944&aunbr=100000000

This kind of event would usually slip under the radar - but I think it is important to note this occasion. From our early pioneers of the auction platform, Leon Kupperman, Edward and Saurabh Soman  to the folks who now mange our operations such as Jason Barr, Tualha Khan and Sally Szeto . They have quietly and successfully provided a stable and reliable platform for our clients to sell items dynamically for more than 10 years. With perhaps the exception of eBay and BIDZ I do not think there is another auction platform in North America that has surpassed that mark.  I might even bid on this item as it might have some historic value for the Trrution archives.

Truition has just launched a new auction site for the Professional Bowlers Association (http://auction.pba.com/). Since 2000, Truition has built and maintained auction sites for every single sports league or organization in North America. Many have prospered, which I hope will happen for the PBA, as their fans discover a safe and secure  place to bid on authentic items directly for the league. Some of these sites have failed (I can think of the CFL and the Arena Football League as examples) because they did not have the right support from the leagues/teams in terms promotion and online marketing. More importantly, they did not have access to a reliable stream of authenticated items so fans did not have good reasons to re-visit the site.  I have listed all our league sites below with a few RIP URL’s for you to look at!

Living and Thriving     

NFL - http://www.nflauction.nfl.com/
MLB - http://auction.mlb.com/
NBA - http://auctions.nba.com/
NHL - http://auction.nhl.com/
NASCAR - http://auctions.nascar.com/
WWE - http://auction.wwe.com/
MLS - http://auction.mlsnet.com/
US Open - http://www.tennisaceauctions.com/

RIP

Arena Football - http://aflauctions.at.edeal.com/
CFL - http://cfl.at.edeal.com/
NLL - http://auctions.nll.com/

“We are not only your eCommerce vendor - we are your online partner”. Comments like this are often met with a degree of skepticism, particularly at the early stages of a client engagement.  However, it is possible for the vendors-client relationship to facilitate a truly trusted partnership that helps clients grow and expand their online business.  Since 2001, Truition has hosted and managed the NHL Auction Network (http://auctions.nhl.com), the leading source online for hockey memorabilia and collectibles. Products such as game-worn jerseys and trading cards are provided directly by the NHL, its member teams, and selected vendors. Since its inaugural season, the site has grown 10 times as a result of the hard work of the many people who have developed and marketed the site.

Parties from both the NHL and Truition collaborate to ensure that hockey fans visiting the auction site receive the best products and services in the world. What does that mean? It means ensuring teams and rare team-specific items get up on the site in a timely manner, and it also means ensuring high-quality authentic items from the best players in the game are evenly and well represented in the marketplace. It means providing a scalable, reliable platform and services for the NHL to market and advertise their auction program. It also means meeting end users and fans to make sure that all of their needs are being responded to.

Last weekend, the NHL and Truition partnered to co-sponsor an NHL Auction booth at the Sports Card and Memorabilia Expo held at the International Centre in Toronto, where they showcased the site to the thousands of hockey fans attending the show.

Truition staff familiar working on the online auction program (thanks to Carly Napier, Gary Tsaconas and Vinai Dhanrai) along with members from the NHL eCommerce Program (thanks to Joslin Warren and Jordan Morse) manned the booth all three days. Hockey fans were able to visit the booth and bid on items, giving us a chance to speak directly to the fans and receive their feedback. It was a great event with hundreds of vendors selling their memorabilia and hockey cards. Autograph sessions were taking place right near our booth with hockey stars Felix Potvin, Curtis Joseph, Johnny Bower, Claude Lemieux, and many others.

The show was very successful; so much so that we plan to run it again at the NHL Fan Fest at the 2008 NHL All Star game in Atlanta scheduled for January 26/27, 2008.

From Airlines to Consumer Product Companies to Sports and Entertainment firms, more and more organizations are turning to online Auctions in general, and points-based online auctions in particular, as a means of reaching out to customers and building their brand.

Why you say?  I'm glad you asked...the reasons why are varied, but all tie back to the elusive challenge of keeping that all important returning customer coming back again and again...So here then, are the top reasons why marketers see value in adding online auctions to their eCommerce and Online Marketing toolkit:

Reason #1 – Airlines/hotels and other companies that reward customers with points or loyalty rewards need these loyal customers to continue to redeem these points. Often loyalty points are viewed as a liability on an organizations P+L and most naturally want to encourage their redemption. Auctions are an effective method to encourage this.

Reason #2 - These organizations need to engage their customers with interesting new ideas and products and provide compelling reasons to return to their respective .coms. Auctions have historically proven to be sticky application providing an ‘entertainment/game’ like functionality the respective web sites. Average time spent on auction sites by customers is significantly higher than on traditional eCommerce sites -- often 3 to 4 times the average session time

Reason #3 - Airlines/hotels and other companies that reward customers with points or loyalty rewards can often leverage existing partnerships and relationships they have already developed for prizing and products for their online auctions.

For example Priority Club Auctions has an arrangement with Major League baseball (MLB) via Holiday Inn as the official hotel of Major League baseball. They utilize this relationship for prizing such as tickets, once in lifetime experiences and signed baseball memorabilia

Reason #4 - Many organizations want the ability to communicate directly with their customers on a frequent and consistent basis. Auctions provide this level of communication by the very nature of the auction environment i.e. email upon registration, email upon bid, email upon out bid, etc.

It is a pretty safe bet to say that Loyalty Points Auction programs are becoming a required piece of site functionality for any company that is developing or has developed an extensive program that rewards customers with points or miles.

What does “Multi-Channel” mean to you?  For traditional retailers, multi-channel generally refers to the integration of web, catalog, POS, phone and kiosk sales into a cohesive retailing engine (dare to dream). For many eCommerce pure plays however, multi-channel often involves the ability to distribute products into multiple eCommerce channels such as a clearance site, auction site, comparison shopping portal or large public marketplace such as eBay or Amazon. 

I thought I would share how a client’s unique focus in the sports vertical has allowed them significant growth online via a unique “Multi-channel” strategy. Steiner Sports Marketing is one of North America's premier sports collectible and Memorabilia companies, with many exclusive deals for sports-related products including relationships with sports licensing giants the New York Yankees and New York Mets . Their goal is too reach the true fan with the best product possible. 

One of the key reasons for Steiner’s online success is a very targeted eCommerce distribution strategy aimed at their core audience – sports nuts.  Steiner reaches this niche market by utilizing various vertical online auction sites and eCommerce destinations.  They have developed a formula whereby they distribute inventory directly to web sites managed by the various sports leagues in North America – this strategy serves to build their brand amongst sports fans, and also acts as primary online sales channel for many of their products. Multi-channel retailing of a different sort you might say…

Below is a list of sites they currently sell products on.

MLB Yankees

MLB Mets

The NHL

Steiner uses these league sites to help drive awareness to their own private label auction destination, Steiner Auctions - http://auction.steinersports.com/ I think in the next couple of months you will likely see Steiner Sports continue to expand their multi-channel distribution business directly to wherever sports fans gather online.

I saw a great article on the front page of last weeks USA Today Travel Section highlighting a number of Loyalty Auction Sites we are running with our Partner Points.com - "Out: Boring rewards. In: Dreams come true."

The article seems to indicate that these Loyalty Auction Sites are a new concept but the idea dates back to the late 1990's...

In the heady days of the dot.com world circa 1999, there was a brief flourish in the development and launch of points based online auctions – used primarily for promotional programs which were often tied to physical redemption of goods or services.

A good example of this is an early auction program for Coke and early programs for Miller Beer and Burger King.  The basic premise of these auction programs was the ability to include codes inside retail packages. Consumers would open the package and enter the code online. The codes would have pre-determined values or points associated with them which consumers could then use to bid via these branded online auction sites.

These programs were generally expensive to run and required extensive tie in to the packaged goods side of the business. They also required significant prizing budgets and fulfillment partnerships. As a result these programs did not seem to gain significant traction.

The real growth has played out on the loyalty side. Loyalty auction programs use existing loyalty or air mile programs as currency, with no retail product required for redemption. The cost to launch and operate these programs is significantly lower and most companies who utilize loyalty type programs are anxious to engage existing point holders to use them.

Starwood - http://auction.starwoodhotels.com/

Priority Club - http://auctions.priorityclub.com/