Internet Auctions in Marketing: The Consumer Perspective

Internet auctions for consumers are among the lnost popular and lnost successful business models in electronic COlnmerce. Research so far, however, has focused on prerequisites and consequences of auctions as a marketing instrument of suppliers. Even though it is a key success factor from a lnarketing perspective, the delnand side has not inspired sünilar attention. This paper focuses on the attitudes, lnotives, and behavior of auction custolners. It shows why current beliefs about bidder characteristics are lnyths. Taking these lnisconceptions as a starting point, the existence of an experiential and a praglnatic type of auction customer is proposed. An explorative empirical study looking for the characteristics of both types of auction customers is described. Results indicate that less than half of auction shoppers in the study are experiential oriented. Except substantial additional demand concerning technological and emotional qualities of auctions these shoppers do not differ dramatically from pragmatic oriented shoppers. Both types are open-lninded towards further development of consumer auctions to commercial marketplaces. Business models of auctioneers and suppliers should concentrate on the basic utility of the auction algorithlTI by facilitating individual matchmaking instead of pursuing costly additional utility by promoting the entertainment value of auctions.