Glossary
Auction terms, defined
Every term you'll meet running auctions on Shopify, in one or two sentences each.
- Bid increment
- The minimum amount a new bid must exceed the current high bid by. Increments usually scale with price, for example $1 under $30 and $50 above $2,000. Read more
- Built for Shopify
- A badge Shopify awards to apps that meet its performance, design, and reliability standards. Auction Now holds it.
- Buy now
- A fixed price at which a bidder can end an auction early. Some apps offer it; Auction Now runs pure timed auctions.
- Combined shipping
- Rolling several auction wins by the same buyer into one order with a single shipping charge. Read more
- Customer accounts (Shopify)
- Shopify's login for shoppers. Auction Now requires bidders to sign in with a customer account, which keeps bids accountable.
- Draft order
- A Shopify order created by the merchant (or an app) that the customer completes by paying a checkout link. Auction Now creates one for each auction winner.
- Dutch auction
- A format where the price starts high and drops until someone buys. The opposite of a standard ascending auction.
- Hammer price
- Auction-house term for the winning bid before any buyer's premium, tax, or shipping.
- Hard close
- An auction that ends at a fixed time regardless of late bids. eBay uses a hard close, which is why sniping works there.
- High bidder
- The bidder currently in the lead. Shown on the product page with a masked name such as Chr****.
- Lot
- A single item or group of items sold as one unit in an auction.
- Max bid
- Auction Now's term for a proxy bid: the ceiling a bidder sets for automatic bidding. Read more
- Next-bidder fallback
- Offering an unpaid win to the next-highest bidder at their bid, automatically, after the payment window expires. Read more
- Outbid
- When another bidder's bid (or proxy) exceeds yours. Auction Now emails bidders the moment they're outbid.
- Payment window
- How long a winner has to pay before the item is offered to the next bidder. Configurable in Auction Now; 24 hours is the default. Read more
- Penny auction
- A format where bidders pay a fee for every bid and the price rises by a cent each time. Not a standard product auction; Auction Now doesn't offer it.
- Popcorn bidding
- Another name for soft close, used by live-stream selling apps: late bids keep 'popping' the timer back up until bidding stops. Read more
- Proxy bidding
- The bidder enters the most they'd pay and the system bids on their behalf, one increment at a time, only as far as needed to stay in the lead. Read more
- Relist
- Running an ended auction again, usually with a new end time and sometimes a lower start. One click in Auction Now.
- Reserve price
- A hidden minimum the seller sets; if bidding doesn't reach it, the item doesn't sell. Auction Now doesn't use hidden reserves; the starting bid is the floor. Read more
- Scheduled auction
- An auction created in advance with a future start time, so a batch can open at the moment of a drop or announcement.
- Sniping
- Placing a bid in the final seconds of a hard-close auction so other bidders can't respond. Soft close removes the advantage. Read more
- Soft close
- A rule that extends an auction's end time when a bid is placed near the close, so the auction only ends after a period with no new bids. Prevents sniping. Read more
- Starting bid
- The lowest amount a bidder can offer on an auction. In Auction Now the starting bid is also the floor: the item won't sell for less. Read more
- Success fee
- A fee charged only when an auction sells. Auction Now charges 5% of the winning bid, billed through Shopify when the winner pays.
- Theme app extension
- Shopify's way for an app to add a block to a storefront theme without editing theme code. Auction Now's bidding widget is one.
- Timed auction
- An online auction that runs between a set start and end time, with bids placed on a web page instead of called out live. Product auctions on Shopify are timed auctions.
- Usage charge
- Shopify's mechanism for billing an app fee based on activity rather than a flat subscription. Auction Now's success fee is a usage charge on your Shopify bill.
- Watchlist
- Items a bidder is following without having bid. Auction Now emails watchers when a watched auction is ending soon.
- Winning bid
- The high bid at the moment the auction ends. The winner pays this amount; Auction Now's success fee is calculated on it.
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