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E-Commerce Jan 19, 2023

How to Build an Auction Website like eBay in 2023 [Complete Guide]

Jane Vyshnova

Jane Vyshnova

CEO

Author

Daria Diachenko

Daria Diachenko

Copywriter

Author

How to Build an Auction Website like eBay in 2023 [Complete Guide]

Content

  1. Let us talk about eBay
  2. Why Create an Auction Website
  3. Key Aspects of Auction Website Development
  4. 9 Steps to Build an Auction Website
  5. Cost to Create a Website Like eBay
  6. Conclusion

Auction websites are not particularly new but have gained in popularity in recent years. An auction website is where you buy or sell a product based on a bidding system. It is a good strategy to start a business and quickly gain a huge following.

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They are popular among people because they don’t really have to do something special. It is a good way to sell old things (for sellers) and buy cheaply (for buyers). Of course, there is no guarantee for the product that a person will buy from an auction website. If you are wondering how to build a website like eBay, it is not as hard as you imagined it to be. In the article below you will learn how to make an auction website and make it successful. Custom web development is essential for creating a website like eBay and it will offer you the best solutions to make your online auction business successful.

Let us talk about eBay

eBay is an online auction company started by Pierre Omidyar in California on September 3, 1995. Apparently, this auction was just a hobby for Omidyar which turned out to be a major source of income. Soon it became a popular website to sell and buy things online.

It is often overlooked when it comes to marketing. Amazon and social media have masked its importance. Currently, about 187 million people are actively using eBay. Statistics show a significant 100 million user increase over a span of 8 years. Coming to some fun figures, eBay’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the first quarter of 2021 was $27.46 billion.

eBay is also used as a platform for marketing purposes. For example, Smudgy Monkey - gifts and accessories, has used eBay to advertise its products. Turns out that it was a great deal and their revenue increase was about 96.44%.

A prime example of such innovation is LastBid, a dynamic marketplace specifically designed for auction houses. This platform addresses the prevalent issue of unsold auction items, which can be as high as 30% of lots in traditional auctions. By creating a two-sided online marketplace, LastBid offers a fresh sales avenue for these unsold lots, connecting them with a global audience of potential buyers. This approach not only revitalizes the potential of unsold items but also preserves the commission structure of auction houses, offering a win-win solution.

As you can see, eBay is popular, easy to use, simple to set up, and has a huge market. Do you want to know how to make a website like eBay? If your answer is yes, continue reading carefully.

Why Create an Auction Website

Auction-related commerce has a long and deep history, but nowadays, most of it is replaced by online auction software like eBay. It is easier, faster, and does not require the person to physically be present.

Traditionally, those auction items are exquisite and not things to use daily. On the other hand, you can buy or sell anything ranging from a book to a table. Some other reasons why building an auction website is profitable:

Most of the time such websites are developed due to a hobby or as a way to pass time. Some sites turn out to be good and useful and become a business. However, there are many problems to which an auction site is a perfect solution. E-commerce development services are the most convenient way to start an auction website. Professional developers can help you create a site that is easy to use, attract customers and build a successful online business. With their help, you can design your own unique dynamic web pages with advanced functionalities that will allow your users to bid on items and make transactions securely in real-time.

For example, when your online business is going down, you can use eBay to increase sales. As a customer, this is an easy way to sell out the used electronic items, cars, or books. This way, things will be reused instead of going into the trash. Also, eBay provides an opportunity for working-class people to own used-branded things and buy daily-use items at a cheaper rate. Thus increasing the quality of life.

Key Aspects of Auction Website Development

An auction website has a typical structure that must be followed. Here we will discuss some models and the most important parts that the website should contain. There are a few principles too on which the website model is created:

You may choose any of the models while building your auction website. The model will affect the software to be used and the coding type. But other than that, everything is quite similar. Also, the revenues generated will depend on these auction website models. Next, we will show you the important sections of bidding sites like eBay!

Payment Gateway

You must ensure a port through which the auction website will receive payment. One point to remember is paying is a crucial part of the website, therefore, a secure gateway for payment is necessary.

We have seen many such problems with personal bank data being stolen. A problem that occurred on eBay was that a customer who wanted to sell expensive stuff like jewelry and wristwatches didn’t want PayPal to be used. He also could not use Bank Merchant as a way to receive money.

As a website builder, it is important to have a smooth transaction without any problems followed by a confirming email. Also, it is important to consider the country and the person’s choice when it comes to payment options.

User Connection

Of course, you need the proper coding language to have a better communication system. The community on your site should be able to talk to each other (sellers and buyers) to rule out any doubts.

Sometimes, customers are not sure about the product, or the sellers are not sure about the buyer so they need to communicate. You can have a direct messaging system or a helpline where the person with doubts can leave a message. When you develop the website, make sure the messaging system is fast, fluid, and responsive.

Images

This is the crucial part of your website because buyers will take the product based on the photo. When making research on how to build an auction site, consider that your website should be accustomed to photos of a different quality that will be uploaded. The website must be optimized and feature the rules for uploading the types of files that can be displayed well.

It is a good idea to develop an application (with an attractive design) so that the website will appear optimized for smartphones. Pictures are the basis of advertising. The better the pictures, the better the sales. Make sure that there are multiple pictures of the product.

Promotional Tools

Once you created a site, it is time to advertise it. There is a need for software tools that help in marketing. These are especially helpful when you are creating it yourself. Such a tool can help create automated emails or give advertising suggestions.

Call to Action

Use a prominent call to action. When listing the most important elements on e-commerce product pages, the call to action (CTA) button should be right there.

It could be an “add to cart” button, a “buy now” button, or something else. It should be easily recognizable and make the visitor take action.

It is important to choose the right color for this button, taking into account the cultural characteristics of your target audience.

When choosing your text, keep in mind that certain words mean different things in different countries. For example, look at how eBay changes the CTA text on their websites in the US it is "Add to basket" and in the UK it is "Add to cart".

You will also be interested: How to Create an eCommerce Product Page

9 Steps to Build an Auction Website

It is important to fulfill certain steps and have some basic understanding in order to make an auction website. At this point, you might have many ideas, but you don’t know how to start an auction website. This step-by-step tutorial on how to create a website like eBay will give you some suggestions.

To be successful, advertising and marketing are needed. Here is a list of things you need to do first; after you’ve created a plan which includes:

Let’s go through the steps and tell you more about the cost to build an auction website, so you will have a clear idea of how the pricing will be done.

Get the domain name

Step 1. Get the domain name

After you’ve chosen a platform or you hired a company that knows how to build an online auction site, you should start choosing a domain name. You may get it for free (as a trial) but the main name has to be bought. The cost of the domain name to build a website like eBay varies but the basic one costs around $1 to $4000 per year. It represents the name of your site so people can find you easily.


For example, the domain, EBAY.at, according to Forbes, might cost up to $8-$10 per year from GoDaddy. Well, this first step is not that expensive. On Quora, ask the question “which domain is the best for an auction website?” And the answer was a three-character domain. Remember, this domain name plays an important role in the success of your business.

Get the web hosting account

Step 2. Get the web hosting account

You also need an account where all the files uploaded will be stored. That is called a hosting server. There are different types of hosting that can be bought:

Exclusive. Of course, this is the type of web hosting that is the best for a person who does not want to be bothered by other people. All the features like memory, bandwidth, and suggestions are all for you to use. The price is higher for this type of hosting account (about $100 or more).

Designing is an important part of any website

Step 3. Create a design

Designing is an important part of any website. An auction website is not an exception. Web-designing has taken a turn and now the concept of web designing has completely changed.

The type of design depends on the purpose of the site and on the developer. In order to design a layout, you need experience in HTML. You may check different Youtube videos and learn the front-end first.

Also, you may decide to use other types of programming languages like Python or JAVA. Java is stable and is preferred, whereas Python is a relatively new programming language and is similar to the English language - everyone is starting to use it worldwide.

There are various site designers available who will make sure your landing page looks and feels great. Hiring a professional team and the designing process may cost you $6000 to $15,000 per specialist depending on the level of experience and the requirements of the site.

The cost range for a custom web development task could be $5000 to $20,000

Step 4. Begin development process

Development is a continuous process that never stops. Creating the code, adding pictures and text is not enough for an auction site.

Development is a broad term under which many tasks are included, like client-side scripting, or security installations. This step takes more time as compared to others because you need to figure out network issues and scripting problems along with correcting them. That is why it is a progressive process.

If you opt for custom development, it is important to know that firstly it will be expensive and it could take more or less time depending on what the needs are. The cost range for a custom web development task could be $50,000 to $200,000.

Web content basically refers to the text or pictures that will be shown on your website

Step 5. Add content

Web content basically refers to the text or pictures that will be shown on your website. People are so woven into design and development that few pay attention to content. We would clarify some points regarding the text and images that you will use:

  1. Text - font size should be big enough to be readable, and the font selected should be easy to read. Put the text into smaller paragraphs, the text should be relative to the purpose of the website, and make it short.

  2. Images - add good quality (HD) pictures, more pictures than text, In an auction site the images represent the product (they should be clear and attractive).

Content development is free if you decide to do everything on your own. But if you want to hire a content creator for the site, the cost changes. Of course, the price differs but the main range is $500 to $1000 per month, or you may negotiate to pay for separate blocks or content.

Pay attention to the online payment authorization

Step 6. Pay attention to the online payment authorization

You will need a certificate otherwise you cannot receive any online payment (which is your biggest source of income other than advertisements). It is also required to be SSL authorized. This certificate has to be bought and the price range is $150 to $700 per year.

The price differs depending on the type of certificate you buy. Different services may give up to 5 different types of certificates. If you want a guarantee, you need to pay extra money. This is where things start getting a bit expensive.

Step 7. Install add-ons

To turn your site into an auction one you need several other things. They are referred to as add-ons. They enhance the functionality and add more features to the existing interface.

For example, people who want to open an online shopping site would require an e-commerce add-on which will let the developer do things like “add to cart”, “pay online”, “comment” or “subscribe”. Similarly, an auction site should have add-ons like “verification service” or “analysis” available.

On the other hand, plugins are additional tools that increase the capacity to customize the site according to demand and supply. You can find special auction plugins available on the platforms. The price range varies from $10 to $500. Yes, the price range is huge because of the variability in the type of add-on or plugin and the website.

Additionally, auctioning sites have several different features like:

An e-commerce website might cost anywhere from $10-$15 per month if you decide to use a platform like WordPress or Shopify.

Step 8. Launch your website

Are you ready to launch your website? You finished all the development steps, but there is one more crucial step we missed - testing. It is a tool everybody should use to test their site.

Basically, it shows how well the website is working and if all the features that were added are operating within limits. The testing will bring out security issues and bugs that clients might observe when released into the market.

You will get real suggestions and advice from everyday people (common users), and you can make changes accordingly. Launching the website is not enough, you need to maintain the website too for which the price is around $3000 to $15,000 per month.

Step 9. Advertise your website

You may promote your website for free on social media, e-commerce marketplace, or email advertising. Social media advertising takes time and may not lead to fast consumer registrations. In order to create a website like eBay, you need to use wider promotional options like paid advertisements.

You may pay certain bloggers to advertise your website or special agencies that specialize in promotional activities. To advertise using specialists, you need to increase your budget by $1000 to $150,000.

Cost to Create a Website Like eBay

Characteristic

Price

Domain

$2 to $20 per year
$300 - $600 per year for an exclusive domain

Host

Shared: $60 per year
Exclusive: $1200 per year

Design

$6000 - $15,000, the price depends on the complexity

Development

Custom made: $50,000 to $200,000

Content

$500 to $1000 per month

SSL authorization

Without guarantee: $150 - $700 per year

With guarantee: $500,000 - $1,500,000 per year

Add-ons

$120 - $180 per year and prices go higher - it depends on the quantity

Launch

If you are creating an auction website yourself: the total cost will be less of course. It may start from $25 per month (paying for the platform which includes a basic plan). If you want to add more features, add better design, etc., the cost may start from $250 per month and go higher. Time took - months to years.

If you hire a web development company: the same site would take between $2000 to $50,000 for a created site, depending on the website. Time took - weeks to three months.

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$1000- $150,000 per year

Note, a site development company is responsible for the process and will continue maintaining it for you as well. They are professionals which means they are experienced enough to make a great website from scratch. A slightly higher price for a much better website created in less time is preferable. The company will make changes when bugs are found in the way the site is functioning.

There you go; that was a quick summary of the development and pricing strategy for an auction website. Nowadays, templates and platforms are available which makes site creation easier and faster.

Using templates though, you end up paying a good sum of money each month. You might as well pay the same amount of money, or even less, and get a professionally created website from experts. For a slightly higher price, you may get the same website (or even better), with fewer problems, maintenance, and testing. The experts have experience in auction site development, and they would know what type of coding or color scheme works well.

Now you know how to create a bidding website.

Conclusion

If you still are doubting yourself in your head with those great ideas of how to build an auction website, it is time to bring it out on paper and work on it. You should jot down those ideas, do some research, and make your website a reality.

What you need to set up an online auction website is mentioned along with the price. You can build a website like eBay using such platforms as WordPress or Shopify because they give good plans, more options, reasonable prices, professional themes, and good site templates.

If you need any assistance regarding an auction website, have questions, doubts, or need help, you can contact Dinarys. Our professional programmers and experienced software developers will make sure your site attracts many customers and gets more followers like eBay. If you need support during the first few steps to create your own auction website, we’re one click away.

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