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Wool Online has invested heavily in new technology on its online trading platform on the back of a surge in buyer bidding.
Buyers can use a faster and more accessible auto-bid setting and the platform has improved reporting options and is more user-friendly for those on mobile phones.
The online marketplace is close to reaching sales of one million bales of wool, worth $500-plus million.
The Rangiora-based company estimates its share of the open-market wool trade has trebled with traded wool volumes doubling over the past 12 years.
Wool Online partner Mark Hunter said the company had put a lot of investment into a faster and more flexible platform to support the next phase of trading growth.
He said Wool Online wanted to make it as easy as possible for buyers to bid for wool, while giving sellers and farmers access to an alternative marketplace.
The new version of the auto-bid function had been developed from faster back-end improvements.
Buyers were previously using it less previously because they felt their internet connection was unreliable, he said.
“Some of them don’t use it because they are a bit old school, but we are finding with the new technology a lot are using it because it is happening so quickly they don’t want to miss out on wool. By putting an auto-bid in this safeguards that. The new iteration and technology is more mobile friendly and a lot of the export traders travel locally and globally and they can put an auto-bid in before they get on a plane.’’
Buyers enter their best price before the sale starts and the system automatically bids to this in seconds. They also have the option of continuing to enter bids once limits are reached.
“The point of difference between us and the traditional open cry auction is you cannot physically do that many bids in that short period of time and it is a good thing for farmers too in that they are getting the best price because people are putting their best bids in and it’s happening very quickly.’’
One lot attracted 286 bids in the offering of just under 3000 bales at the online auction, resulting in a 90% clearance and about $2.7m of sales on October 20.
Sales have attracted 15 to 20 bidders from France, Australia, Italy, China and New Zealand the past weeks.
Wool values are off their high from less Chinese activity and Australian volumes returning the past few weeks, but longer crossbred wools were up 10 cents a kilogram and shorter hogget wool and oddments were unchanged.
Finer wool prices reflected a tapering of quality at this stage of the season.
Mr Hunter said the platform had experienced major growth despite the overall wool clip declining 15% the past five years and showed the shift in farmers choosing to take their wool to market.
“A significant part of that growth is being driven by farmers choosing to work with either local merchants, or alternative sellers like Wool Works Grower Direct, who use Wool Online to trade their clients’ wool.”
Rising fuel prices had also made it more expensive for buyers to get to auctions, he said.
The founders of Wool Online are Allan and Janet Udy and Greg Tibbs, established in 2009 as a joint venture between Wool Connextions Ltd and Golden Micro Solutions Ltd.
Mr Udy said the new-look platform was faster and more intuitive and had built on functions working well the past 17 seasons to support more buyers, lots and bids.
