Introduction to Auction

In today’s fast-evolving eCommerce environment, traditional fixed pricing often falls short in driving customer engagement and maximizing revenue. Auctions introduce an element of urgency, competition, and interactivity, proven strategies to increase engagement and average order value. Shipturtle’s Auction Module enables Shopify merchants to seamlessly integrate fully customizable, real-time auctions into their storefronts—without requiring custom development. Designed with scalability and flexibility in mind, the module supports multiple auction formats, real-time bid updates, automated workflows, and native multi-vendor compatibility. Whether it's intelligent proxy bidding, real-time bid updates, or configurable reserve pricing, Shipturtle's auction module empowers merchants to deliver seamless, high-impact auction experiences that drive engagement, urgency, and higher conversions.

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What is a Product Auction App?

A Product Auction App transforms the traditional fixed-price model by introducing competitive bidding in place of the standard “Buy Now” option. Instead of making an immediate purchase, customers place bids, creating a dynamic and engaging shopping experience. Shipturtle’s auction module supports multiple auction formats—including standard, proxy, penny, and popcorn auctions—while offering advanced automation, customizable storefront widgets, and integrated email workflows. Unlike most alternatives, it is fully optimized for multi-vendor marketplaces right out of the box, making it ideal for both single-brand stores and complex vendor ecosystems.


Key Features of Shipturtle's Auction App

🔄 Real-Time Bid Updates

With Shipturtle’s real-time bidding, there’s no need to refresh the page—everything updates instantly as bids come in. Thanks to built-in pipelines, your auction page stays live and active, giving every customer the most current view of what's happening.

As soon as someone places a bid, the auction table expands automatically to show key details like:

• Bidder’s Name
• Email Address
• Bid Amount
• Time the Bid Was Placed
  
  

This live update feature keeps the energy high and ensures full transparency. Everyone sees the latest bids the moment they happen, which not only builds trust but also encourages more active participation. It’s a smooth, modern auction experience—right on your product page, without any delays.

🤖 Proxy Bidding

Proxy bidding lets customers set the highest price they’re willing to pay, and the system will automatically place bids for them—just enough to keep them in the lead.

This means they don’t have to keep checking the auction or placing bids manually. It takes the pressure off and makes bidding easier and more convenient.

Proxy bidding helps:

• Reduce stress around overbidding
  
  
• Keep auctions active and competitive
  
  
• Let users participate even when they’re not online
  
  

You can choose to enable this feature for all auctions or only for specific ones. It’s a great way to offer a smoother, smarter bidding experience.

🔁 Popcorn Bidding (Dynamic Extension)

Popcorn bidding is a smart feature that keeps auctions fair and competitive by automatically extending the auction end time if someone places a bid in the final few seconds.

This prevents “sniping”—when a bidder waits until the very last second to place a winning bid, giving others no chance to respond. With popcorn bidding, if a last-second bid is placed, the system adds extra time to the countdown (for example, 30 more seconds), giving everyone a fair chance to continue bidding.

You can control how it works by setting:

• The threshold time (how close to the end a bid must be to trigger the extension)
  
  
• The extension window (how much time gets added)
  
  

This keeps the auction exciting until the very end and makes sure no one misses out due to timing.

 💰 Reserve Pricing & Buy Now Option

This feature gives you more control over how and when a product is sold by letting you set two key price points:

• Reserve Price: This is the minimum amount you're willing to accept for an item. If bidding doesn’t reach this price, the auction can end without a winner—ensuring your product isn’t sold below value.
  
  
• Buy Now Price: This gives customers the option to skip the auction entirely and purchase the product immediately at a fixed price.
  
  

You can choose to show or hide both of these options on the storefront, depending on your strategy. This flexibility helps protect your margins while offering buyers more ways to engage with your products.

🎯 Penny Auctions

Penny auctions add a layer of exclusivity and commitment by requiring customers to purchase bidding credits or “penny products” before they can place a bid. Each entry comes at a small cost, which can be defined by you.

This model offers several benefits:

• Reduces spam and fake bids, since only paying users can participate
  
  
• Increases revenue, as you earn from each bid placed—not just the final sale
  
  
• Creates exclusivity, making the auction feel more premium and serious
  
  

It's a powerful way to drive both engagement and earnings, while ensuring that only genuinely interested buyers join the bidding process.

🔢 Multi-Unit and Variant Bidding

With Shipturtle’s auction app, you’re not limited to single-item auctions—you can auction multiple units or product variants at once, giving buyers even more flexibility.

Here’s how it works:

• Variant Bidding: Let customers place bids on specific product variants (like size or color). Winners are selected per variant based on the highest bids.
  
  
• Multi-Unit Bidding: Customers can bid for more than one quantity of the same item. The system automatically assigns winners based on bid amount and available units.
  
  

This is perfect for high-demand products or bulk purchases, and ensures fair distribution when you have limited stock across different versions of a product.

⚙️ Automation & Workflow

Shipturtle’s auction app comes with smart automation features that help you run auctions smoothly with minimal manual effort. These built-in rules let you set conditions in advance so your auctions stay fair, efficient, and easy to manage.

Here’s what you can automate:

• Auto-stop after X winners: Automatically end the auction once the desired number of winners is reached—perfect for limited-stock or multi-unit listings.
  
  
• Auto-assign next highest bidder: If the original winner doesn’t complete the purchase, the system can automatically assign the item to the next eligible bidder.
  
  
• Restrict repeated bidding: Prevent users from placing multiple back-to-back bids to create a more competitive and fair bidding environment.
  
  
• Auto-extend auctions: If no bids are placed during a set time window, you can automatically extend the auction to increase visibility and participation.
  
  

These tools help keep your auctions engaging, fair, and mostly hands-free—so you can focus on growing your store.

📧 Email Notifications & SMTP

Stay connected with your customers throughout the auction process using automated email notifications. Shipturtle comes with a set of preloaded email templates that are triggered by key auction events, such as:

• A new bid placed
  
  
• A customer being outbid (including proxy bids)
  
  
• Winning or losing an auction
  
  

You can easily customize the subject lines and message content of each email to match your brand tone—or turn off notifications you don’t want to send.

For stores with high auction activity, Shipturtle also lets you connect your own SMTP server. This helps:

• Improve deliverability
  
  
• Maintain your brand’s email identity
  
  
• Avoid hitting email-sending limits on Shopify or third-party platforms
  
  

With these tools, your communication stays clear, automated, and scalable—without compromising on control or branding.

🔐 Bidder Privacy & Data Handling

Protecting your customers’ privacy is a top priority—and Shipturtle gives you the tools to do just that. With built-in privacy controls, you can decide what information is visible on your storefront during auctions.

Key features include:

• Hide sensitive details such as the starting price, current highest bid, or total number of bids—perfect for keeping your strategy discreet or adding mystery to premium auctions.
  
  
• Encrypt bidder data displayed on the storefront, ensuring that personal information like names or emails are never exposed publicly.
  
  

These settings not only help you stay compliant with privacy standards but also create a more secure and trustworthy experience for your bidders.

We also offer the Auction Module for C2C (Customer-to-Customer) plans, enabling individual sellers to host and manage their own product auctions seamlessly. Please contact our sales team for more information.

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