Headline Feeds
Internet auctioneer UBid has announced the debut of a fixed-price feature called "uBuy It Now."
The new price format, which is becoming more prevalent among online retailers and auctioneers, lets UBid buyers purchase items at a fixed price without waiting for an auction to end. The feature also allows sellers to present items for sale at a specific price.
"The fixed-price feature is in keeping with the marketplace UBid has become," UBid chief marketing officer Alan Cohen told the E-Commerce Times. "We have evolved from UBid Direct and now allow buyers to immediately realize savings."
UBid now offers the fixed-price feature on its UBid Direct auctions and will introduce it on Preferred Partner and Consumer Exchange auctions next month.
Sales Trio
The Chicago-based auction company now provides three sales models for the liquidation of end-of-life goods in such product categories as computers, housewares and collectibles.
Using the new "uBuy It Now" option, buyers can purchase a product outright at a fixed price. They also can purchase items through competitive bidding in the traditional auction format that the company has offered since its 1997 inception.
For some items, buyers can choose between purchasing the product at a specified price or submitting competing bids. In those cases, a fixed-price buy automatically ends the auction, similar to EBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) Buy It Now feature.
Feedback Funnel
Clear customer 
demand for a fixed-price option drove
planning for "uBuy It Now," Cohen said.
In fact, in one of the first auctions presented with the new feature -- a lot of 25 cameras -- eight of 25 units were purchased at a fixed price, he added.
"'UBuy It Now' is the next step in UBid's evolution," acting UBid CEO Tim Takesue said. "This feature allows us to target those shoppers only interested in straight sales."
Liquid Gold
With 3 million registered users, UBid is the No. 2 online auction site, behind EBay. But analysts said UBid's model competes more with Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and EBay-owned Half.com.
"[UBid's fixed-price feature] is another form of markdown," Forrester Research analyst James Crawford told the E-Commerce Times. "It contributes less to competition among bidders than it does to competition among other fixed-price merchants."
Unlike EBay, Crawford said, UBid is the seller of the goods on its site. EBay, on the other hand, relies on a tremendous aggregation of product and eyeballs to facilitate the sale of consumers' own goods.
"There is a ton of material in the [product liquidation] channel and a ton of demand," Crawford added.
Room to Boom
Perhaps due to its early entry into the lucrative
liquidation arena, UBid may be one of the few success
stories spun by Internet startup incubator CMGI.
UBid's auctions feature more than 12,000 products daily in 16 different product categories.
"UBid is like the last man standing," Crawford said. "It has a niche in the liquidation space and is not challenged much."
But given the abundant supply and demand in the
liquidation industry, Crawford added, there probably will not be a
single category-killer, leaving room for a number of
players to thrive.
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