Media: Internet Bidding gets the Wharton Scrutiny

'"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to model formally the behavioral aspects of bidding behavior for the entire sequence of bids in Internet auctions," the authors write.' Wharton professor Eric T. Bradlow and Cornell professor Young-Hoon Park.

Tips in this article about their research are divided into those for buyers and those for sellers. There's nothing specific for designers, but it looks as if there is much to be scavenged in this assessment of user behaviour. Findings include:

* Bidding timing: Approximately 75% of final bids are submitted after 97% of the auction duration has passed.

* Buy It Now (BIN) feature: When a seller uses the BIN feature, it is successful approximately 40% of the time.

* 'Keep it short: The minimum bid and the auction duration have counterbalancing effects on the buyers' willingness to bid. "This suggests that sellers should shorten their auctions and raise the minimum price," the authors write. They add a recommendation that "empirical experimentation be used to determine the exact choices."'

* Play it straight: A seller's reputation influences a buyer's willingness to bid.

* Target the newbies: Auction participants with less search experience - who are not actively comparing prices at other sites - have a greater willingness to buy.

Associated Link: Wharton: Going Once ... Going Twice ... The Bidding Behavior of Buyers in Internet Auctions

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Being a manager of UX is no better — and no worse — than being a great designer or user researcher, but the roles are very different.