Advice for building a VERY customized auction experience on Shopify?

[AuthenticBizCo]

Hi Everyone,

Im setting out to build out a concept I have for an live auction experience and Id love to figure out ways to do this on Shopify. Does anyone have any advice? Anyone with great coding skills interested in working on this with me?

Im happy to answer any questions and I sincerely appreciate any advice or references.

I expect that Im going to need a genuine shopify-whisperer (with full-stack ninja skills) to pull this off, so please feel free to post any references to ferrari-level developers if you know any!

[Elias]

Hey, @AuthenticBizCo.

Elias here with Shopify Support. That's a great question!

There are a couple of third-party apps, such as Product Auction or Tipo Product Auction, which can help set up your products for auctioning. Both of these apps offer a free trial, so I'd recommend seeing which one fits your store and has the features you need. However, depending on which other areas you're looking to customize, coding is generally for customizing your theme or aesthetics. If you're interested in custom coding, you can hire a developer to assist you with this - You can find one on Shopify Experts. Experts are experienced with custom coding and may be able to help create a solution for your concept. 

If you need any assistance with either of these apps, you can also reach out to the developers through the contact information found in the Support section of their app pages. 

With that said, which other specific features are you looking for in a live auction?

[chandrasekhar]

Hundreds of other app entrepreneurs are working on Shopify to improve their business. We are working to reach as many merchants as potential by offering hassle-free support for integrating any Shopify App, so that you don't have to go to battle with yourself.

If you are looking for help to configure a Shopify auction product app for your Shopify store, our Shopify specialists will help you set up for your achievement at the right time. Our team of Shopify experts can also build custom apps or set up existing apps for you, allowing you to go away from the basics of Shopify and turn your site into a well-oiled machine for your business.

[Stacy_Zhuk]

In such a situation, the smartest decision is to hire a Shopify developer or a team of developers who know how to create a fully functioning e-commerce store that will suit your personal and business needs. If you need to develop an effective e-commerce website, I am completely sure that Whidegroup https://whidegroup.com/ will be the best option for you. The company has huge experience to walk you through this challenging task.

[DutchGoat]

I would be careful with Shopify and Auctions. We are a simulcast auction and set up a site to facilitate customer checkouts and shipping fulfillment. Then Shopify closed our Shopify Payments Account because we are an Auction, and the Terms of Service for Shopify Payments do not allow auctions. I checked the TOS, and it only says Pay Per Bid (Penny Auctions) are not allowed. I am still waiting to hear back from them on my appeal, but closing down our ability to take payments via Shopify during an auction sure had an impact. This does not make sense to me as they have several auction sites and Apps on Shopify, so I would confirm that your payment portal does not get shut down if you want to do auctions on Shopify. 

[Elias]

Hey, @DutchGoat.

Thank you for joining the thread and sharing the additional context!

You are correct in that bidding fee auctions are prohibited on our Shopify Payments gateway, as indicated on the Shopify Payments Terms of Service B.5. However, if you have a supported third-party payment gateway that supports auctions and your business is permitted in your region/country, then you can absolutely use the Shopify platform for an auction store. That being said, if you need help finding a third-party gateway to support your business model, then we'd recommend exploring our list of supported third-party payment gateways in your region. 

I'd love to hear more about your business! What types of products are you auctioning? Have you explored any other payment gateways for your store?