SalesBid first in SA with real-time online haggling

Every so often, an e-commerce company beats the rest of its field in the race to develop ground-breaking technology. South African ASP, SalesBid announced this week that it had done just that with the successful development of real-time online "haggling technology" - setting a first for South Africa and pipping giants like US-based Fairmarket.com at the post.

SalesBid's new technology will be used for the first time in a 'Haggle for Holidays' promotion which was launched today (November 15) and will run for 3 weeks. The promotion - run jointly with Protea Hotels and iafrica.com - saves holidaymakers money by allowing them to haggle for three and five night packages in popular Protea Hotels, including Umhlanga, Gold Reef City, Knysna and the President Hotel in Cape Town. Over 600 rooms have been made available and the haggles will be hosted on both www.iafrica.com and www.protearoombid.com.

David Bloch, CEO of SalesBid - which specialises in the development and implementation of dynamic pricing solutions - said that holidaymakers will have great fun haggling with cheeky characters like Santa , Snowman and Scrooge over the price of their hotel room. "These characters will give hagglers quite a run for their money and tell them bluntly when their offers are too low. In the end consumers will still be able to get fantastic deals on rooms."

Bloch said the technology is an important addition in SalesBid's product offering. "While online auctions have given e-commerce a real boost, they can be frustrating for those consumers wishing to purchase inexpensive commodities like CD's or hotel rooms immediately. At SalesBid we have researched, developed and fine-tuned this technology which allows users to conclude their transactions online instantaneously.

He said that, barring a handful of overseas companies which have developed rudimentary haggle models, SalesBid is ahead of the rest of the dynamic commerce industry with its highly sophisticated haggle solution which can be added to a company's existing website in order to sell online.

"The haggle runs off the standard SalesBid framework, is written using Java Enterprise standards and leverages off Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Extensible StyleSheet Language (XSL). The haggle model creates and registers unlimited mathematics-based haggle formulae. It can carry themes, such as fun mode, aggressive haggling, price-focused or time-focused haggles," said Bloch. "This is in line with our objective of ensuring that all our dynamic pricing models are built on the same technological base.

"The haggler will try to maneuver the price towards its own internal spot price, while keeping a watchful eye on market conditions and tempering the process with its own theme or personality."

Bloch said the implications for e-commerce both locally and abroad are significant. "We are anticipating a sharp increase in the number of online users buying these products now that they don't have to wait long for their successful offer to be confirmed, as is the case with online auctions".

Here's how to haggle online

• Go to

  www.iafrica.com

  , choose the "haggle for holidays" icon, register and select the hotel package you want to haggle over.

• One of the characters - Scrooge, Santa Clause or Snowman (the haggler) will suggest an initial offer to you.

• You, the potential buyer, can undercut that price by submitting your own offer.

• The haggler comes back with a counter offer, if your original offer was 'aggressively' low, the haggler will tend to come back with an aggressively high counter offer. The haggler will determine whether to accept your offer or to counteroffer based on:

• The number of items remaining (if less items will try to stick to price, if many items will be lenient on price),

• Time remaining (if a great deal of time remaining it will by sticky on price - if little time remaining it will be lenient on price).

• Level of aggressiveness will dictate how uncompromising it will be on price.

• The haggle characters will make chirpy comments throughout the process.

• If, during the haggling process, other buyers conclude sales, the haggler will know that stocks have been sold and will get stickier on price.

• If the time is drawing to an end during the haggling process, the haggler may get less and less insistent on price as it wishes to fulfil the contract before the goods perish.

• If an offer by the user is within the acceptable range, then the haggler will accept. For example, if the haggler believes the current price should be R120 and the acceptable range is R20 then if an offer for R100 or more is made then the haggler would accept that offer outright.