This article describes the parts of the Bidder Dashboard and how to use it to sort, filter, and approve/deny your bidders.
For information about disputes, see Disputes for Non-Paying Bidders.
This article contains the following sections:
- About Bidder Management
- Navigating the Bidder Dashboard
- Reviewing Bidder Data
- Manual Approvals/Declines
- Automatic Approvals
- Recommended Bidder Management Process
About Bidder Management
Every auction held on LiveAuctioneers, both Live and Timed, requires bidder participation- which means every auctioneer must vet their bidders to determine who is allowed to place bids on their inventory.
Once your auction is published, bidders will begin to preview your catalog, register, and leave absentee bids. Up until auction day, and throughout your auction, you should be actively monitoring your Bidder Dashboard to make sure you have captured and approved all viable bidders and their bids.
Having a strong understanding of bidder management will help you to maximize completed transactions with trustworthy buyers, while minimizing non-paying bidders and disputes.
For more information, watch our Pre-Auction: Bidder Management (New Version) webinar here.
Navigating the Bidder Dashboard
Accessing the Bidder Dashboard
From the Seller Dashboard, click on the Bidders tab and select Manual Approval.
Filter & Search
Use the Select an Auction to Review drop-down to filter bidders by auction title. If you have several auctions running at once, you can see each list of registrants separately by selecting your auction title from the drop-down menu.
Enter a bidder's name or username into the Search field to search for a specific bidder.
Filter by Bidder Attribute:
This is a good way to group similar types of bidders to make bulk approvals or declinations.
- Bidders with open disputes
- International bidders
- Bidders with credit cards on file (verified at time of registration)
- Bidders with active bids
- Bidders with a valid mobile phone number
- Premium (guaranteed) bidders
Filter by Approval Status:
- Registered: All registered bidders, regardless of approval status. You can further narrow by bidders with bid limits.
- Pending: Bidders who have registered but have not yet been approved or declined. Bids still pending at the time an item closes will not be executed.
- Approved: All bidders who have been approved for the selected auction(s). You can further narrow by bidders with bid limits.
- Declined: All bidders who have been declined for the selected auction(s).
- Blocked: Bidders on your Blocked Bidder List and any bidders suspended by LiveAuctioneers. Bidders with open disputes from two or more auction houses are automatically suspended until they have resolved all disputes directly with the filing auction houses.
All Upcoming Auctions
For information about the Upcoming Auction reporting at the top of the Bidder Dashboard, see Auction Performance Reporting.
Reviewing Bidder Data
Bidder List View
Use the bidder list view to get a quick overview of bidders within each category and quickly evaluate which bidders need extra scrutiny.
This view will display the bidder's name, the auction they registered for and when, the country they are in, and when they created their LiveAuctioneers account.
Additionally,
- If the bidder is a Favorite Bidder, the Star icon to the left of their name will be yellow.
- If the bidder is a Premium Bidder, there will be a Gemstone icon to the left of the name (under the Approved tab only).
- If a bidder has a Bid Limit, it will appear in the Bid Limit column (under the Approved Limited tab only).
- If the bidder has any Open Disputes, a Yellow Diamond will appear in the Payment column. Hover over the icon to see the dispute information.
- If the bidder has any Closed Disputes (disputes closed in the last 12 months), a Gray Diamond will appear in the Payment column. Hover over the icon to see the dispute information.
- The Percentage (%) that appears in the Payment column is the Payment Rate, or the percentage of invoices the bidder has paid by volume.
- If the bidder has a credit card on file, a Green Credit Card icon will appear in the Payment column.
- If that icon is not present, then either the card on file for that bidder is not valid, or the bidder is new or inactive (they have not bid in over 180 days), meaning they are not required to have a card on file to submit their first bid.
From here you can also check the boxes to the left of bidders to bulk message, add to favorites, approve them (with or without bid limit), or decline them.
Bidder Profile
Clicking on a bidder's name will open their Bidder Profile on the right side of the page.
The Bidder Profile gives you details about the bidder's registration(s) with you, as well as their bidding history on LiveAuctioneers- allowing you to make individual approval decisions.
- This section of the page scrolls independently from the rest of the page. Hover your cursor over the bidder's profile on the right side of the page and then scroll to see the entire profile.
The first section of the Bidder Profile contains their name, username, address, and phone number, along with the Favorite and Block buttons. It will also advise if this is a Premium Bidder, if the bidder has met Live.Approvals criteria, and if we recommend that you add the bidder to your Favorites list.
It also has a Message button you can click to send the bidder a message.
The next section of the Bidder Profile displays Upcoming Auction Registrations. This sections shows the auction's name, when they registered, their registration status, and the number of active bids for each of the upcoming auctions they registered for. You can check the box to the left of each auction to Approve or Decline the bidder, or set a Bid Limit.
The next section contains Bidder Analytics, which are related to the bidder's details and behavior on LiveAuctioneers. This section provides further details for bidders who might not have enough purchase history to qualify them for Live.Approvals verification.
- Member Since: When they created their LiveAuctioneers account. Keep an eye out for accounts less than 6 months old.
-
Card on File: Verified initially when a bidder creates an account or registers for an auction, and then on a consistent cadence therefore after.
- Bidders who are new or inactive (have not bid in the last 180 days) are not required to have a card on file to submit their first bid.
- Number of Auctions Attended, Bids Placed, and Items Won across all of LiveAuctioneers.
- Tax Exemption: Indicates whether or not they have a verified tax exemption certificate on file with LiveAuctioneers
- Payment Rate: The percentage of invoices the bidder has paid by volume.
- Avg Hammer Price: The average Hammer Price of items won by the bidder across all of LiveAuctioneers.
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Dispute History: The number of Open and Closed disputes the bidder currently has. Click on the link to view more details about the disputes.
- Having Open disputes with 2 or more Auction Houses will trigger automatic suspension from bidding.
The last sections display Notes on the bidder and any Previous Conversations you had with the bidder. Notes are internal and only visible to your Auction House.
Click the View Messages link below a conversation to see all of the messages that comprise that conversation.
Manual Approvals/Declines
Manual Approvals should be reserved for unknown entities to your auction house. This may be new bidders, bidders who have been inactive (have not bid in the last 180 days), bidders with disputes, or bidders with limited bid history on LiveAuctioneers.
Manual approval can be adjusted at any time- meaning that bidders that were previously declined can can be approved, and bidders that were previously approved can be declined. Bidders that were previously approved or declined can also be approved with a Bid Limit at any time.
- From the Seller Dashboard, click on the Bidders tab and select Manual Approval.
- Locate the bidder using the filters, the Search field, or by clicking on one of the Approval Status tabs.
- Check the box to the left of each applicable bidder and then click on either the Approve or Decline button that appears at the bottom of the page.
- To approve bidders with a bid limit, use the drop-down at the bottom of the page to select a Bid Limit and then click the Approve button.
- To approve bidders with a bid limit, use the drop-down at the bottom of the page to select a Bid Limit and then click the Approve button.
- A confirmation message will appear in the top right corner of the page.
Automatic Approvals
Automatic Approval settings are used to set rules that automatically approve bidders who meet both our criteria and yours, helping take the bulk of the work off your plate. Bidders who do not meet automatic approval criteria will remain in a 'Pending' state for you to manually review. The only bidders who are automatically declined are bidders on your blocked bidders list.
Automatic Approval settings can be accessed by navigating to the Seller Dashboard, clicking on the Bidders tab and selecting Automation Settings.
- Custom House Rule (formerly Global Approval): Automatically approve bidders who meet a combination of criteria. For more information, see Auto-Approval for Trusted Bidders.
- Custom House Rule with Bid Limit (formerly Global Approval with Bid Limit): Automatically approve bidders who meet a combination of criteria, up to a specified bid limit. For more information, see Bid Limits.
- Bidder Guarantee Program: Automatically approve any premium bidders for your auction. To learn more about the Bidder Guarantee Program, click here or contact your Client Success Manager.
- Live.Approvals: Automatically approve anyone with a Live.Approvals verified checkmark. To learn more about Live.Approvals, click here or contact your Client Success Manager.
- Favorite Bidders: Favorite bidders will be automatically approved (unless they have an open dispute) when they register for your auctions. For more information, see Building Your Favorite Bidders List.
- Blocked Bidders: Blocked bidders will always be automatically declined when they register for your auctions.
Recommended Bidder Management Process
Below are the bidder management steps we recommend you follow to help you to maximize completed transactions with trustworthy buyers, while minimizing non-paying bidders and disputes:
- Set automatic rules first, to take care of the bulk of good faith bidders with strong bidding history.
- Use Bid Limits to conditionally approve unknown bidders, they will come to you if they want to increase their limit.
- Use Custom House Rules to require a card on file if you are running your sale with Autopay.
- Use bulk actions to message, favorite, approve & decline groups of similar bidders.
- Give remaining bidders extra scrutiny by vetting them individually and message them for more information, if necessary.