LONDON.- For years auction houses have worried about the problem of attracting a younger generation of bidders through their imposing entrances on Bond Street and Madison Avenue, in London and New York. But now the online revolution is solving this problem in a dramatic way. A new generation is flooding into auction houses, via their online portals and changing the way these companies operate.

This information is carried in an authoritative report from Barnebys, the world’s largest and fastest growing art and auction search engine that offers its service free to buyers and sellers.

Most Art Market reports look at the size of the global art market and prices achieved. Barnebys decided to focus on behavioral trends in online traffic – why buyers and sellers are doing what they are doing and how auctioneers and dealers can harness that information.

The Report is based on a mix of survey material and measurable data direct from Barnebys’ own database with its 1.5m visits a month. This makes it unique, even against such publications as the highly respected TEFAF Report, because that is largely dependent on third party survey material.

Key findings:

• The average yearly spend online by UK buyers is €1,028 (highest in Europe), in France it is €539. France is a less mature online market, partially because provincial auction houses have not yet developed their online offer to the same extent as other countries. However, this means that France has great untapped potential. The fact that French buyers conduct a high level of cross border trading indicates that they are ready for the level of online activity that their own country has not yet reached at auction.

• More than half Barnebys’ online traffic from millennials (18-34 year olds) comes via mobile, yet many auctioneers’ websites are not yet mobile responsive.

• The three most important factors to online bidders are ease of bidding, transparency of information and reliable fulfilment (transport and delivery).

• Half of those who have bought at auction have only done so online.

• Brand is even more important online than in the traditional market setting because buyers do not have the same opportunity to handle the goods.

• Market access and brand trust are the key drivers to attracting new customers.

• Consumers are adapting to online commerce more quickly than the market.

• Success is more likely to come from adapting to consumer behavior than educating the consumer to adapt to traditional market structures.

• Different geographical markets have different priorities.

• Markets behave differently as they mature because consumers become more confident and their priorities change.

ADDITIONAL POINTS OF INTEREST

* The UK is the number one market in Europe for auctions and e-commerce. It is the third globally after USA and China.

* Brits spend twice as much per year online as the French (the next highest in Europe).

* Why buy at auction? Barnebys’ research shows that consumers list the following reasons - better prices (value for money), unique items, quality, investment value, sustainability, excitement (of bidding at auction).

* How people are buying or want to buy is a huge issue - ease of viewing needed online, ease of payment, ease of transportation for collection. All major issues and headaches for industry.

* The online revolution means consumers have massively expanded the market - lower and middle sections in the main - and so now they set the rules. Some 50% of buyers have only bought online.

* Auctions are no longer the exclusive domain of the very rich. Massive growth expected at lower and middle section.
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* Auctions are now part of the retail scene, part of the High Street shopping experience, thanks to internet shopping.

* Young people 18 to 35 are both frequent buyers and sellers (unlike older wealthy people who tend to be collectors and then finally sellers). As such, the young are more valuable clients across a lifetime.

*Sustainability: Young buyers are switched on by sustainability –the environmentally green aspect of buying at auction, recycling possessions, because it is not new manufacture. This means GUILT-FREE SHOPPING.

* Mobile Access: Auction websites must be geared to mobile devices. Younger buyers are on the move and shop on the move increasingly via their phones.

Conclusion:

So the winners in the auction world are going to be those auction houses both online and with a physical presence who get their act together by building a trusted brand, deliver a great online experience, make access and transparency of pricing and procedures a priority and offer ease of delivery and payment.