An overview of Bidz.com Company
Bidz.com incorporation is recognized as a publicly traded company with total sales equivalent to $104.8 million and 177 employees in the FY 2010. To convey dazzling deals to the clients, Bidz.com simply combines an auction house format, the concessions of dollar stores as well as the internet convenience.
The company offers online retail in accessories and jewelries in the United States. However, various product portfolios being sold by Bidz.com via an incessant live auction format encompass jewelry such as fine art, sunglasses, watches, and gifts.
Apart from the semi-precious and precious stones, most Bidz.com jewelry items are mainly composed of silver, platinum, diamonds and gold. This company basically procures closeout supplies and sells them out to the shoppers via unremitting live mart format with a minimum amount feature of $1 opening bids (Plunkett n.p).
Despite offering a unique short term auction period that can only last for fifteen seconds, Bidz.com, Inc recently launched a private retailing site, www.modnique.com that is preserved for its members only.
Through this autonomous merchant website, the company tenders several authentic and fine product brands supplies which entail collectibles, apparel, shoes, electronics, gift items and arts.
The collectibles include sports cards, antiques, fine art, and coins. Bidz.com, Inc. which is headquartered in the United States’ California operates a fixed priced e-commerce website-www.buyz.com that proffers analogous items similar to those often scheduled for auctions.
The demand for Bidz.com company’s products is fundamentally driven by the edifice requirements of governments, companies alongside the industrial customers desires geared towards improving the operational efficiency (Encell and Dunn pp.57). This corporation’s profitability level entirely relies on the ability to predict the project costs more accurately.
Bidz.com, Inc. business
Bidz.com incorporation is a renowned subsequent leader in online jewelry retailing derived from its ensuing annual returns. This company distinguishes itself from other new auction websites due its innovative auction model.
Bidz.com Company yearns to sell merchandize to clients who anticipate dependable deals on wrist watches, brand-name supplies, garnishes as well as jewelries. While this publicly traded company procures and preserves all stocks onsite, it ideally proffers to the clients appropriate service deliveries.
Every merchandize is thoroughly checked by qualified products whiz before they positioned on the company’s website and this usually guarantees the clients of the worth of the acquired products (Kurtz, pp.204).
According to Holden (76), Bidz.com incorporation functions in a very aggressive bazaar that bears limited obstacle to market entrance. It offers a business environment through which fraudulent activities and doubtful product qualities linked with third party seller purchases are minimized.
The company provides a fifteen-day return strategy on each merchandize and sometimes these might be exposed to restocking fees. Bidz.com, inc. tends to conduct its fixed price sales and auctions during the seven days of the week while offering 24-hour clients support via email, online live help, and telephone.
Actually, Bidz.com Incorporation does not levy any money sum on the prospective customers opting to signup on the company’s website not excluding those placing their tenders. Bidz.com shoppers tend to have unlimited access to numerous products devoid of extra costly payments and mark-ups to sales agents.
To conduct effective daily business operations, Bidz.com offers detailed and dynamic products descriptions through displayed merchandize photographs.
The company also offers displays that enable clients to follow underway auctions instantaneously while the victorious tenders become involuntarily informed after a mart has been finished. Merchandizes that Bidz.com stock are acquired straight from the cashiers and producers.
Bidz.com incorporation intimately supervises its trade movements to evaluate the clients’ orders on some merchandize group and fashion and procures the non-exclusive inventories straight from the producers (Lu et al. pp.580).
Market and marketing environmental analysis
Bidz.com majorly trades its products online. Online sales websites have vastly produced universally vigorous markets that seem to defeat ineptness related to routine auction buying since it presents trade benefits.
Corporations akin to eBay affably led to the launching of a focal online mart bazaar that gives shoppers a wide set of merchandize to buy. Currently, online trading sites provide convenience that permits Biz.com to trade every time as it offers incessantly updated product offerings (Holden pp. 76).
Through leveraging the internet interactive nature, Bidz.com, inc. websites allow the clients to experience the live auctions excitements including a spirited bidding process.
Bidz.com promotional approach is effectively planned to create shopper passage via mounting product appreciation, and web-site alertness, edifying a dependable shopper foundation, and capitalizing on the recurring acquisitions. Bidz.com promotion and selling plans principally comprise of schemes discussed below:
- Exploration advertising: Bidz.com buys promotion exploration engines mainly at mart based values that are remunerated every moment a prospective client’s clack on a given commercial ad on the company’s website. Bidz.com presently maintains advertising relations with Yahoo, Google and MSN for advertising search engine.
- Operational email: the company uses undeviating electronic advertising line ups to support shopper transfers, vista creation and clients’ purchases, reiterate buying, and purchaser preservation. The plan covers consent tailored email promotion to the company guests expressing their requests to persistently receive marketing cut rate and merchandise approval. Bidz.com incorporation acquires novel shopper, new-fangled mustering and clack on apiece action charge.
- Affiliate programs: Bidz.com incorporation draws clients via involving them in various linked plans. The company’s affiliate programs give an opportunity to other website workers to help them earn commissions via giving their visitors direct access to Bidz.com website. The company aims at reaching its websites in order to draw clients from several other sites (Encell and Dunn pp.57).
- Refer friend plans: Bidz.com incorporation generally draws fresh clients through engaging the already available clients to partake in the pass on a link plan. Basically, the already available clients receive stock up acclaims provided a pal catalogs as a novel shopper and the initial acquisition is dispatched. The company’s acquired store credits are valid for a maximum period of six months upon which they can be used to pay for the purchases.
Bidz.com SWOT analysis
Strengths
Bidz.com generally buys its merchandize straight from the cashiers and producers at wholesale price. Besides, the company trades in a variety of products such that if one product looses market, the company can easily set off the loss via actively selling other products.
The durable nature of the products being dealt with allows Bidz.com to pile stock of inventories that cannot easily go bad. The company has suppleness to procure various product volumes which can easily be shipped to the established stockroom in a single trip thus lessening the transportation load. The developed database also helps the company to swiftly post inventories for sales.
Weaknesses
The widely embraced Bidz.com resource replica which tends to offer a vital cash substitute conduit for the producers for the excluded supply disposal purposes cannot effectively meet its objectives.
Furthermore, the sales channel does not cater for every client needs since not every customer has the knowledge of using internet or even placing bids. Seasonal fluctuations in the commodities that Bidz.com offers hinder the company’s chances of making accurate sales forecasts.
Threats
The online garnishes, trademark name supply and jewelry bazaars seem to be developing quickly thus creating intense rivalry in the industry. With relatively low entry barriers, there is the possibility that new market entrants would launch websites at low costs.
Thus, most stocks may be subjected to short selling and price volatility while the cost of acquiring new clients might also be augmented. Due seasonality in the products that Bidz.com deals with, there is no guarantee in the supply of most jewelry products.
Opportunities
Bidz.com commodities have chances of creating new markets in other parts of globe. Additionally, technological advancement would probably help the company to initiate sites that can be run at low costs, and this will in turn facilitate revenue augmentation.
The company can capitalize on economies of scale to outdo other market competitors and become the global market leader. The strategy might as well help it to achieve global expansion in areas where its subsidiaries are not eminent.
Bidz.com main competitors
Due to the rapidly evolving nature of the supply auction market, Bidz.com faces stiff competitions as a result of low entry barriers into the mail and catalog order houses industry. The market rivals include the liquidation companies and e-commerce mart merchant such as uBid, overstock, eBay, and the Blue Nile.
Works Cited
Encell, Steve and Dunn, Sin. Everything online auctions book: all you need to buy and sell with success–on eBay and beyond! Littlefield Street, MA: Everything Books, 2006.
Holden, Greg. Selling beyond eBay: fool-proof ways to reach more customers and make big money on rival online marketplaces. New York, NY: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, 2006.
Kurtz, David, L. Contemporary Marketing 2011. Auckland, New Zealand: Cengage Learning, 2010.
Lu, Jie, Ruan, Da, and Zhang, Guangquan. E-service intelligence: methodologies, technologies and applications. New York, NY: Springer, 2007.
Plunkett, Jack, W. Plunkett’s E-Commerce and Internet Business Almanac 2009 (E-Book): E-Commerce and Internet Business Industry Market Research, Statistics, Trends and Leading Companies. Houston, TX: Plunkett Research, Ltd, 2009.