Online bidding Essay Example for Free

Online bidding Essay E-bay means you can search for items on the internet through its search tool bar. To access E-bay you go on www. ebay. co. uk here you can search for items you may want or need using the search tool bar and typing in key words. This will then bring up matching items that other people have put on e-bay to sell. From here you can view prices, details on the items and many have images for you to view the product. If you have found something you would like to bid for you put in your bid. When the time period for that item on sale ends, usually one week the person that has put in the highest bid for it gets it for that amount. However the seller can put on a reserve, if the reserve is not met the seller does not have to sell. Payments can be made by credit card or by sending a cheque in the post. Pay pal is the most popular way of paying for goods as it is well protected and secure. Goods are then posted or shipped out to the highest bidder. It is open to the whole world and you can therefore purchase things from other countries like China or America. You can purchase anything from kids toys to cars on eBay. One of the things that more and more people are buying on ebay is holidays. Some advantages of using online auctioning are; firstly you can shop on the internet from the comfort of your own home. This is a lot more relaxing, saves energy and time having to go in and out of shops. Another is that on ebay you can search for virtually anything and find what you need for example if you want to buy a perfume, a new handbag and look around for a new car you can look for all of these on one site. If you were to go out looking for these if would mean a lot of walking and travelling as there is not a shop that does al these. Another advantage of shopping on ebay is that you get special online prices; prices on ebay are usually a lot cheaper than in shops. Ebay alerts are useful as it emails you if your bids have been successful or if they have been out bid. Disadvantages of using online auctioning are; credit card fraud. One of the main things that put people of bidding for items online is that credit card fraud is a risk they will have to take, as there are many hackers out their who can brake the best security codes. Another disadvantage is that you have to keep checking the status of your bid because some one may have out bid you and you will then not get the product unless you out bid them. You also have to wait for what you have bought. Firstly you have to wait for the payment to go through which may take a few days and then you have to wait for it in the mail, depending on how far you have ordered from and the conditions arranged with the seller you cloud wait a very long time or a really short time for your products. Another disadvantage is that you do not know who the seller is and although the auctioning company will have their details people can still get away with fraud by taking payments and not sending anything out. Also faulty items can be a pain, if you product is not working properly or at all you have to send the goods back to the seller and then claim money back. This can turn into a very long process and can lead to court if it turns into disputes as the seller can claim it was working and refuse to refund. I think the target audience for online auctioning is for older people from about the age of 20 and upwards to about age 45. I think this because you need a credit card to be able to auction therefore you will need to be over the age of 18. I think male and females will use it, I also think more people without children will use it as you will need time to sit and search, with children this may be difficult. To auction online you will need to register with a credit card. If you do not have a credit card you will not be able to do it. Once register you can bid but also sell your own items.