Understanding Your Buyers

Once you’ve assessed your inventory, it’s time to learn about your buyers. Understanding them will help you fine-tune your marketing, ensuring your auctions get the best exposure. In summary, you're getting the right products in front of the right buyers.

Maximize Price Threshold

Let's revisit the price threshold, also known as stopping point. As mentioned briefly in the intro, this is the price an item reaches where buyers decide to stop bidding (usually near the item's market value).

Each buyer has their own personal decision metric for when to stop bidding, some examples include:

Personal Budget
Personal valuation of the item
Ability to obtain the item elsewhere
Assessment of the item's market or resale value

Consider these factors the most while researching your buyers. When you attract the right ones, you'll see an increased average price threshold for your items. Remember, the goal is to maximize price threshold.

Targeted Advertising

Knowing your buyers’ demographics helps you direct advertising effectively. One example is geographical location. Advertising an auction consisting mainly of computer parts to people living in the countryside may not be as effective as advertising an auction with gardening tools or outdoor equipment.

Buyer age also plays a minor role. Here's a general guideline of effective methods for different age brackets:

Teens / Gen Z

Influencer content, social platforms, podcasts, music streaming

Adults / Millenials and Gen X

Authentic social media, email, streaming, values-driven storytelling

Older Adults / Baby Boomers

TV, print, direct mail; luxury-personalized in-store experiences; inclusive branding

💡 Calculating The Interests Of Your Buyers: If you’re struggling to determine how interested your buyers would be in this auction’s categories, perform a category analysis of your past auctions. What categories/types of products have sold the best historically? The best performing categories are more or less what your existing buyer pool is interested in.

Understand Your Buyers

Get to know the communities revolving around your buyers. If you sell makeup, where are all your buyers hanging out online to discuss brands and types? What advertising outlets reach them the most?

When you learn more about your buyers, its easier to step into their shoes. "What would get me interested in this auction" is a question you should ask when beginning the marketing process.

Buyers trust sellers who understand both them and the product. For example, imagine buying vintage electronics from either a seller with demonstrated expertise on the subject vs a regular goods seller. The expert can assure quality, authenticity, and value to the buyer whereas the regular goods seller can't. A buyer will feel more comfortable in their purchase from the enthusiast, and more comfort equates to higher willingness to spend more.

Buyer Analysis Checklist

✔ Given the categories for this auction, approximately what % of your buyers will be interested in each category?

✔ Dedicate additional thought to how you’ll find new (and relevant) buyers by asking "where can I find these buyers online or in person?"

✔ Determine what method of advertising works for your specific buyers

✔ Become a pro on the items you're selling