June 5, 2000

Online Auctions Go B-To-B

Andale upgrade increases automation for suppliers that move lots of volume via multiple sites

By Cheryl Rosen

Online auctions, first aimed at consumers, are attracting a growing number of business customers. Software vendors are fueling that trend with new capabilities designed to make business-to-business auctions easier.

Andale Inc., a provider of business software for online auctions, last week rolled out version 2.0 of its software suite for business-to-business auctions, unveiled a data-integration deal with Intuit for accounting software, and introduced a new customer, Sun Microsystems reseller Avcom, which expects to distribute $100 million worth of hardware and software through auction sites using Andale's software.

"Our customers are saying this is the B-to-B channel," says Andale president Munjal Shah. "In fact, 4% of sellers on auction sites are responsible for 80% of the sales. But to make it truly viable, we need to improve the overall professionalism of the channel."

Andale provides Web tools that list sellers on multiple auction sites such as Amazon.com and Yahoo, accept payments, and track sales and customers. Since its launch in February, Andale has processed $100 million worth of transactions for 200,000 merchants through a proprietary business-management system based on Java. The system runs on Sun Solaris and uses an Oracle database.

The suite is designed to automate more of the process for suppliers that move large volumes of products over a variety of sites. The intelligent inventory feature tracks sell rates on different sites and proposes the best yield-management plan, lets merchants pre-schedule as many as 1,000 auctions at the same time, and lists goods automatically on a regular schedule. Also new is call-center support and an ExpressPay feature that handles the checkout process; it accepts Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, personal checks, Billpoint, Amazon 1-click, and money orders. Andale gets 2.95% of the sale price.

"Auctions will revolutionize the pricing of products and services in the business-to-business arena," says Avcom president and CEO Brad Bishop. "Businesses will get to a place where there is no list price, and prices go up and down every day. Avcom's prices on both hardware and software will likely change, literally day to day or month to month. And Andale, sitting on top of all the sites, is the best way to make it happen."

Andale's agreement with Intuit will bring integration with the QuickBooks 2000 accounting system, allowing Intuit's 2 million small-business users to upload inventory from QuickBooks into Andale and download sales back to their internal ledgers. Also in the works is the auction industry's first loyalty program, which will offer customers frequent-buyer points and lotteries for purchases made at Andale merchants.