bidorbuy blog

It used to be like this.

Someone told you about bidorbuy.co.za. You went there, browsed for a while, and chanced upon an item you simply had to have.

That is precisely the reaction we expected. So far, so good.

Having found the item you could not resist you, naturally, pressed the “buy now” or “place a bid” button. That too is exactly what we want you to do.

As a new user, you were then taken straight to the log in or registration page, which is also what is supposed to happen.

Once you entered your details and finalised the registration procedure - what used to happen?

The recent bidorbuy usability testing revealed that, often, nothing happened. The newly registered first-time visitors to the site would at this point encounter a stumbling block which many did not know how to overcome. They were simply unable to find the item they were prepared to buy.

The necessity to do away with this hurdle gave birth to the newest innovation to the bidorbuy site: the “items you have viewed” page. That is where the new users will find all the items they visited prior to completing the registration – including the ones they were set on buying.

The function has the benefits that go beyond newly registered visitors. All buyers will surely like to have all the listings visited nicely arranged on one page, with the ones viewed most recently at the top of the list.

The “viewed” function records 100 items before the oldest ones start dropping off. The items are recorded in a cookie and retained on the visitors’ computer for up to a week. This means that the person using the same computer after you can see what you have been up to on bidorbuy. You may not like that. You may not, for example, want your wife to see all the Christmas gifts you mean to buy for her as a surprise. Just to be on the safe side, remember to click occasionally on the “Remove all items from this list” link, to be found in the upper left corner of the “items viewed” page.

Do let us know via the bidorbuy Forum if you experience any problems with this feature!

(Please note: if you have not viewed any items, there will be no link to the “items you have viewed” in the main menu, just like there will be no link to the “view cart” if your shopping cart happens to be empty.)

The excitement continues on bidorbuy.co.za with the newest grand offer on the R1, no-reserve auction: a West Coast plot valued at R900,000

Last week there was the nail-biting R1 no-reserve auction of the 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK320 Cabriolet valued at R350,000. The envy for the buyer who won this attention-grabbing vehicle for R267,222.25 is still going strong in many quarters. And already – there is something else on bidorbuy to get exited about, something else to covet.

This time it is a plot.

But not just any old plot. The plot that is currently offered on the bidorbuy R1 no-reserve auction is a piece of land situated in one of the most beautiful corners of the world: South African West Coast, between Shelly Point and St Helena Bay Harbour.

The plot commands exceptional view over Shelley Point and right up to Elands Bay. The paved roads lead to it. In short, the scene is set for a magnificent life style that a select few can enjoy.

Thanks to the current economic woes that are affecting property market, you have a chance to elbow your way into that group of the select few. As the seller says, this plot, numbered 7061, should be worth about R900,000 in normal market conditions. And in the current R1, no-reserve auction it is likely to be snapped up at a fraction of that price. Moreover, the seller will pay for all transfer fees and transfer duties applicable. Surely there’s no better time than now for those who have a few extra Rands (well, a bag-full or so of extra Rands) to acquire such a gem! Surely there’s no better place to do it on than bidorbuy.co.za!

The West Coast plot auction is now open, and will close late on Thursday.

The plot with a view R1 auction is surely something bloggers will be eager to sink their teeth into. We are here to oblige. Therefore, if you have a blog, try to guess the highest bid and enter bidorbuy Best Guess Competition. You have until Thursday 9AM to come up with your forecast.

   It is fun and exciting to sell online during the holidays.  And despite the tough economic climate, Christmas will come this year

Yesterday, a show of hands in my gym class revealed that only two out of about twenty sweaty bodies plan to go on a holiday in December.

Airline companies say that the domestic flights are fuller than ever, because all those who used to go on holidays overseas are now opting for South African destinations instead.

What does that mean for online sellers? Will the economic woes that are making us re-think our holiday expenses translate into less deals on bidorbuy?
Not necessarily.   

Doubtlessly, many people will be cutting their spending on travel and on luxury goods. However, Christmas will still come this year, and everybody will still want to give nice presents to their loved ones. And as you already know, one of the most affordable shopping venues is – bidorbuy.co.za. Therefore, the present financial crunch can actually work in favour of bidorbuy sellers, bringing more buyers to the site in search of a bargain.

That is not to say that you as a seller can cross your arms and wait for the sales to materialize. Some action is required to turn the potential upswing in online sales into reality. Here are several suggestions:

• Make the duration of your listings short and sweet. People are more likely to buy things that end soon. First, there is the psychological urge to buy the item that may disappear off the screen in a couple of hours. And second, the items that are ending soon appear closer to the top in search. Therefore, list for short periods - even if you have to re-list the same item (remember, you do not pay a listing fee on bidorbuy).
• Entice the potential customers with the free shipping offer, even if you have never done it before. This will attract more buyers.
• Do as the retail brick-and-mortar shops do: decorate your Christmas listings with a Santa or a holy. There is nothing that says to the visitor: buy, buy, buy as a bit of Christmas spirit! (However, keep in mind that less is usually better in this respect; also remember that many of the decorations seen on the Internet – including the ones featured here – are copyrighted.)
• Use the real estate on your listing to advertise your other Christmas gifts.
• Delight your customers with something unexpected this Christmas. A thank you note and an inexpensive trinket thrown into the parcel or an offer to gift-wrap the item purchased may make your first-time customer a repeat buyer for the rest of the year!

And first and foremost – make sure you have listed an item or two in the bidorbuy Christmas catalogue!

… and things old and new, as seen in bidorbuy Household selection

You and I have presumably learned a thing or two from those tales with a moral we heard as children. Thus, the tale about the ant and the cricket has taught us to prepare for winter even while sweltering in the summer heat. In that name, take a look at this gorgeous glazed pottery fireplace.

What, you choose not to heed the moral of Aesop’s famous fable, since – strictly speaking – it applies to crickets?! In that case, sing the summer days away with the gentle buzzing of this lovely fan in the background.

By now you will have acquired a taste for all things old and beautiful. Therefore, you are ready to bid for this lot, named antique home goods. It consists of things like two antique light switches, one antique door bell and several antique light holders and spark plugs. According to the seller, all the items are in great condition and collectors will love them for Christmas (you may even ask to get them gift-wrapped).

If your inclinations lean more towards thing new, plus sweet, here is an item tailor-made for you: a brand new chocolate fountain (alas, it looks like the chocolate is extra).

And what do you do in between dipping the biscuits in the chocolate fountain? You play glass chess, of course, all the while smugly observing your chocolate-smeared face in the glass mirror board.

Next week’s Thursday competition promises to be exciting. At stake is a beautiful 2003 Mercedes-Benz CLK320 Cabriolet valued at R350,000. According to the seller, the car has – among other nifty features, like built-in navigation and TV – something called Parking distance control (PDC).

The conventional wisdom has it that second-hand cars are not well-suited for selling online, because the prospective buyers do want to check out the car before buying it: to test-drive it, examine the seats, kick the tires.  That is why the cars for sale on bidorbuy are as a rule listed in the classified section.  Most sellers think that this format works well for cars – so well, in fact, that there are now about 35,000 cars listed on the site. Listing in the classified section means that, for a R50 fee, you can put up the picture and description of the car, as well as your contact details – and wait for a buyer to call you. When selling a car, however – whether on an auction or at a fixed price – the seller is not allowed to post contact details on site.

Quite apart from these considerations, not many sellers are prepared to put items of such high value as cars can be on a R1, no-reserve auction. The seller of this particular car, the Mercedes-Benz CLK320 Cabriolet, who goes under the bidorbuy user name MissSale, seems rather confident as far as the performance on the auction goes. She is much more concerned about the winning bidder not being able to fulfil her or his obligation and see the transaction through in “real life”. That is why she is asking the bidders to bid only if they have cash, or if they know that their bank is ready to grant them finance.

To add to the thrill of having such a beauty on a R1, no-reserve auction, bidorbuy is inviting South African bloggers to try to guess what the highest bid will be at the close of the auction on Thursday 27 November. Therefore, bloggers, follow the rules posted on the Best Guess Competition page and you may win R300 cash prize.

Are you looking to cut down on Christmas 2008 spending?

You are not alone. So is everybody else.

The scary spectre of recession is upon us. And in the times of economic downturn, everybody is searching for ways and means to reduce spending. Even people whose purse is not affected by the financial squeeze tend to spend less, either due to the prevailing atmosphere or because the future becomes more and more uncertain.

However, we all still want to give great gifts to our family and friends.  No need to despair. Here are a few tips on how to find good deals on bidorbuy and avoid holiday shopping disasters.

You already know that shopping online is usually cheaper than retail. For example, bidorbuy.co.za has great deals on auctions, many of them starting at R1. But do not scoff at the “buy now” merchandise either. As a rule, fixed price items bought on bidorbuy will cost you ten to thirty percents less than in shops.

If you have your heart set on shoes or clothes, check you size in a brick-and-mortar store before ordering them online. Brand-name clothes are especially well suited for this, because there is no danger of size discrepancy. A pair of Guess jeans in size 38 online is guaranteed to be the same as the size 38 pair of Guess jeans offline.  The only difference being – the former will as a rule be cheaper.

Always do your homework before pressing the “buy” button. Search the site. Someone else on bidorbuy may be offering the same item, but at a lower price.

Check with the seller to see if the items can be returned for credit. Then calculate the shipping costs – including the return shipping costs - into the price of the item.

Whenever you can, save on delivery charges by buying more than one item from the same seller.

Remember that delivery takes time. Most bidorbuy sellers abide strictly to the rule: money first, then the goods. In other words, it’s no use trying to soften them with some sentimental story in hope that they will make an exception in your case and send the merchandise without waiting for the payment. Instead, start your bidorbuy Christmas shopping on time – and the time is now.

Brenda managed to win the bidorbuy Best Guess competition for bloggers two times in a row. Can you match that? * This Thursday, guess the winning bid for a Jonway Scooter * Next Thursday, guess the winning bid for a second hand Mercedes Benz * Best Guess competition is for South African bloggers only

We do not know how she did it. Brenda herself probably does not know how she did it. Perhaps it was pure coincidence. Perhaps Brenda possesses some special gift. (If latter, she is in line to be snatched up by the South African weather forecast people).

In any case, Brenda, who maintains the Conquest75 blog, walked away with R600 cash after predicting that a 2-bedroom apartment would sell for R382,700, which was closest to the winning bid of R390,000. And a week before, she won R300 for best-guessing what bidorbuy buyers would be willing to pay for a VW Polo Hatch: Brenda said R107 500, and the highest bid was R106,917. (Uncanny, isn’t it?)

Well, during the next two weeks you get a chance to match Brenda’s record.  Guess what price a Jonway scooter will achieve on the Thursday November 20th auction. To help you out, we shall give you the gift of hindsight: an identical scooter was recently auctioned off on bidorbuy for mere R8,100.

And on November 27th, guess what will be the highest bid for this beauty: the second-hand Mercedes Benz convertible (does anyone else resemble in so far as wanting this one for Christmas?)

Good luck to all South African bloggers! May the best-guessing powers be with you!
By the way, detailed rules of the competition are posted on the Best Guess page.

It seems to be the season for it.

Everyone is digging, fixing, re-doing, renovating.

Take my drive from home to work. Short as it is, it involves navigating over exactly three freshly dug ditches. Every now and then a geyser materialises too, spewing water, soil and smaller pieces of Earth’s rocky layer onto the road.

On the socializing front, all my friends are busy renovating. The coffee they serve definitely has a plaster-dust after taste.

And at work, the noise that goes with building partitions has finally subsided. Only to give way to the all-pervading smell of paints. Yes, the bidorbuy office is going through the growing pains of the sub-diving-the-available-space variety.

In keeping with all that fixing, preening and renovating, bidorbuy site is also undergoing important changes. You could not help but notice it if a recent stroll around the site took you to one of these categories:

• Antiques & Collectables
• Cell Phones & PDAs
• Stamps

Yes, a new, better, easier to navigate category structure is already in place on bidorbuy site! True, for the time being the signs of the revamp are visible only here and there. However, it is a big job, and bidorbuy guys (gals including) are taking things slowly, with great care. No spewing, spluttering, or hic-ups are expected!

In due time, all bidorbuy categories will get a fresh look. All in the name of better user experience, easier navigation and more enjoyable shopping.

For the third consecutive year bidorbuy.co.za is the best South African auction site

We do not like to sing our own praises…

Actually, we do, so here it is: bidorbuy is, once again, the best.

The site has been proclaimed the best South African e-commerce site in the auction category for 2008. This is the third year that the comparison site Jump Shopping is choosing South Africa’s  “the best” e-commerce companies, and the third year that bidorbuy.co.za is walking away with the award in its category.

More than ten thousand voters participated in this year’s awards nomination process. After the members of the public voted for their their favourite online stores, a shortlist was given to a panel of judges for the final selection of winners. The organisers say that the votes of the judges - all of them experts in their individual fields - count for 51 percent, and the votes of the public for 49 percent.

See all the South African best e-commerce sites on the 2008 Winners page.

The Jump Shopping awards are designed to recognise and reward companies and organisations that have demonstrated excellence in their use of the Internet, with specific emphasis on e-commerce.

In case you are getting ready to nominate bidorbuy for 2009, read about the rules of the competition here.

… in order to participate in the bidorbuy Best Guess Competition

Many people who have never blogged would still like a chance to win the prize in the bidorbuy Best Guess Competition. They have sent their best guesses by email and have been duly disqualified, because the competition is open to bloggers only. The more persistent of the disqualified would-be contenders have embarked on a blogging career, just in order to be allowed to best-guess the outcome of the current R1, no-reserve townhouse auction on bidorbuy.

And that is where some immediately ran into all sorts of difficulties. In order to help them, here is a crash-course on how to start a blog. This post will not go into the most important aspect of blogging (the content). Its ambition is merely to show the uninitiated the basic ropes and enable them to make a start into the world of blogging.

The first step is to choose a blogging service. Some of the popular ones are Word Press, Blogger and iBlog. All three are free, and all three are good.

Basically – the first step is the last one too. From the moment you register, all you need to do is write, communicate with other bloggers, build your following, sell your blog as a movie script to the highest bidder, or do whatever else you want to do with it. All the blog-hosting services, like the three mentioned here, provide you with an easy online editor….

Aye, there is the rub, because that little online editing tool can be daunting for people who had never laid eyes on it before. Therefore, here are five sub-steps on how to use blog editors. The one featured here is Word Press, but the others are similar. Just take a minute or two to slide your mouse over the buttons and find out which one does what!

Sub-step 1: Write your text. And that really means write, by typing directly into the online editor. Never, ever copy-paste text from a Word document, because you will get a luggage full of unnecessary code, which may display very strangely online. If you have to type in Word, first copy and paste into a Notepad document, and only from there copy onto the online blog editor.

Sub-step 2: The next thing you will want to do is insert a link, just like the Best Guess Competition rules require you to do. In our example, we shall link the word “bidorbuy” to http://www.bidorbuy.co.za. First, select the text you want to link, to look like this:

Sub-step 3:  Click on the insert link (or hyperlink) button,which usually looks like a - well, like a chain link:

Sub-step 4: Enter the URL - in this case, http://www.bidorbuy.co.za in the window that opens. You may also enter other information, but that is not necessary.

Sub-step 5: Press the “Inesrt” button, and behold the result:

Now that you have mastered linking, inserting pictures - which is something every blog worthy of its name should have, at least occasionally - will be as easy as a, b, c. Just play around with the little button that looks like a tree, the “insert image” button, and you will get the hang of it in no time at all.

And in the end - may your blog live to become one of the famous South African blogs, and possibly even win one of bidorbuy Best Guess Competitions for Bloggers!