Bidorbuy

History

bidorbuy was first launched by Andy Higgins in August 1999 at the height of the dotcom boom, in Higgins’ native South Africa. The initial seed funding and continued support were provided by Professor Yair Tauman, Professor Abraham Neyman, Mr Danny Barnea and Mr Zohar Gilon. bidorby was officially launched with a massive marketing campaign in January 2000, led by Nitzan Tal as the managing director, and within months made bidorbuy one of the leading e-businesses and one of the strongest internet brands in South Africa. The company won 2 APEX awards for the 2000 launch campaign. Between February and April, 2000 Nitzan Tal launched the websites in India and Australia. In 2001, after the dotcom crash, the Australian site was closed and the Indian one merged with the former main competitor, Baazee.com (which was bought by eBay in 2004). In October 2001 Higgins went on to run the South African operation. At the slowest point, the company employed only one other person. From 2005 things started to change with the adoption of broadband, always-on internet access by businesses and private users in South Africa. bidorbuy.co.za soon became the largest online marketplace of its kind in South Africa and Africa. In June 2010 a Kenyan bidorbuy site, was established.

Acquisitions

In January 2007 bidorbuy bought a stake in the South African online price comparison service website, Jump Shopping. In 2008, the company acquired majority shares in the South African online jobs portal, Jobs.co.za. and the online classifieds site TheClassifieds.co.za. In 2010, bidorbuy made an investment into PayFast.co.za, a local online payment solutions company. In March 2011, bidorbuy acquired an e-commerce solution Snaply, and in April of the same year the Cape Town-based group buying site UbuntuDeal.co.za. In 2012, the ownership of Jobs.co.za and Jump Shopping changed hands and the two are no longer part of the bidorbuy group. In the meantime, TheClassifieds.co.za and Snaply have ceased operations. As of 7 November 2013, bidorbuy lists UbuntuDeal and Payfast as "partner sites" in its footer.

In May 2014 bidorbuy invested an additional amount into the e-commerce company uAfrica.com (formerly Jump Shopping).

Basic concept

bidorbuy follows the eBay business model. It is an online auction site and marketplace where users, buyers and sellers, transact with each other. Anyone over the age of 18 can transact on the site, providing they respect the site’s terms and conditions. The aim of the consumer-to-consumer auction sites and marketplaces like bidorbuy is to supply a trading model that enables small retailers, or even hobby sellers, to be seen by a larger audience of potential customers, who may be geographically distant. For buyers, such sites supply a place to go to buy commodities at discounted prices, second-hand items or difficult to find collectibles.

Buyers and sellers

After registering on the site and activating the account, anyone over the age of 18 can become a buyer on bidorbuy. New users can also start selling immediately as basic sellers, with restricted scope of activities. Advanced sellers need to have their bank or credit card details confirmed.

Verified users

Both sellers and buyers can become verified users after submitting a copy of their ID book, signed indemnity form and paying a fee for having their credit standing checked out. Verified users are identified with a green tick mark next to their user name. Only purchases from verified sellers fall under the bidorbuy Buyer Protection Programme, which offers a limited compensation to buyers under specific conditions.

Trade brokers

A trade broker works exclusively or partially with somebody else’s products. On bidorbuy, a trade broker is a verified user, an experienced bidorbuy seller who can list and sell products on behalf of other people or companies on bidorbuy.co.za. Trade brokers are not employees or independent contractors of bidorbuy.co.za, nor does bidorbuy endorse them. Each trade broker runs his/her business independently of any involvement of bidorbuy.co.za.

Affiliates

All registered users may participate in the bidorbuy Affiliate Programme. For bidorbuy affiliates to earn commission, the newly registered users referred from an affiliate’s web site, blog or invitation email message have to bid on an auction, buy an item at a fixed price, or list an item for sale within 60 days of registration. If a visitor sent to bidorbuy is already a registered user, the referring site gets a small commission every time such a user places a bid on bidorbuy.

Rating System

The rating system is meant to give buyers and sellers an idea about the reputation of their prospective trading partner before concluding a transaction on the site. Buyers rate sellers based on the service and the quality of the product, and sellers rate buyers on the basis of prompt payments and ease of transaction. There are three kinds of ratings on bidorbuy: positive, negative and neutral. For every positive, the users receive a point. For every negative, they lose a point. There is no effect from a neutral rating.

Items traded on the site

Trading in collectible items, mainly in the auction format, was the foundation on which bidorbuy was built. While collectible items, notably South African coins, stamps, antiques, etc. are still very popular, bidorbuy has branched out into other categories, to encompass all imaginable products that can be traded in legally. In 2008, bidorbuy focused on developing its car section, attracting many car dealerships to list on the site, making it one of the biggest online car shop windows in South Africa. Later on in 2008 the property section of the site was expanded when trade feeds from several online property agencies were incorporated into bidorbuy. There is a purposeful endeavour on the part of the company to distance itself from a site that only offers second-hand bric-a-brac and instead to grow the trade in brand-new items of mass consumption. To that end, bidorbuy has enabled the sellers who have their own e-commerce sites to integrate their shopping cart with bidorbuy and largely automate the listing procedure. As of January 2012, bidorbuy had 32 main categories, each with several sub-categories. With the property subcategories, which are ordered by cities and even suburbs, the total number of categories and subcategories surpassed 3,000. The number of items on offer for sale stood at about 850,000.

Trading formats

Payment Methods

bobPay-EFT (internet transfer) was developed by bidorbuy to enable almost instantaneous internet payments across the four big South African banks: Absa, FNB, Nedbank and Standard Bank (in South Africa, a two or three day delays are a norm in internet banking). bobPay Credit card allows the verified bidorbuy sellers who do not have an internet credit card merchant account to accept credit card payments from customers. Other payment methods include bobBucks shopping vouchers, PayLater personal loans, as well as Discovery Miles, an external e-currency rewards programme developed by medical aid provider Discovery Health and First National Bank. From April 2010, bidorbuy has integrated PayPal as one of the payment options. Sellers may offer to customers other payment methods, at their own discretion.

Fees

bidorbuy does not charge listing fees for listing an item for sale in the auction or buy now format. A success fee is charged only upon a successful sale of the item. This success fee is calculated as a percentage of the actual selling price. For low-cost items, this selling commission can be up to 5% of the selling price. The commission on very high-cost items can be as low as 1%. Items listed in the Classifieds section are not subject to paying the success fee. Instead, the sellers who list their items in the Classifieds pay a flat listing fee. Items listed in any of the trading formats – auctions, buy-now or classifieds – can be “enhanced” (advertised on the home page and other sections of the site on a rotating basis) for a specified flat fee.

Charity fund raising

bidorbuy does not charge success (selling) fees in cases where all the proceeds from the sale are earmarked for a registered charity or non-profit organisation. In 2009, charities raised over R425,000 through sales on this platform. The biggest amount, R300,100 was raised for the Ubuntu Education Fund through the sale of the last VW Citi Golf ever made for the general public by the seller Volkswagen South Africa. In the same year, the Celebrities for Charities Auctions event was held on the site, in which 39 celebrities, most notably the archbishop Desmond Tutu, auctioned their time to raise funds for charities. In 2011, several South African celebrities participated in the Celebrity for Charity auctions benefiting charities including Reach for a Dream and Johannesburg Child Welfare.

Entrepreneurship advancement activities

On several occasions, bidorbuy teamed up with institutions of higher learning to promote entrepreneurship among young South Africans. The bidorbuy representatives gave free introductory workshops to students and guided them through the entire cycle of selling online, from sourcing of the goods to the fulfilment of a transaction. The tutorials, under the name The bidorbuy Auction Challenge, were taken by 60 students of the University of Johannesburg Raymond Ackerman Academy of Entrepreneurial Development in January 2010 and by 50 students of the Investment Society at the University of Cape Town (InvestSoc) in March 2010. The site reports that up to 20% of the people selling goods on its site now make a living by doing so.

Notable and controversial listings

Awards