Read More on:
Send to KindlePackaging marketplaces take center stage
The site has some good features including an "Auto Bid" feature that increases your bid automatically (up to a limit you define) if you are outbid. You can set up your own watch list of specific auctions or you can watch a specific category.
However that leads to the site's main drawback: Even though it's supposed to be a dedicated packaging auction in actual practice the categories aren't packaging-specific. Rather the categories listed represent all the industries VerticalNet serves from "bioresearch equipment" to "photonics." Result: Packaging categories may be considered by many packaging visitors to be too vague to be useful e.g. "food packaging equipment."
One site that appears to be more focused on packaging machinery is EquipNet Direct at www.equipnetauctions.com. The site lists five major categories: packaging printing processing testing and warehouse equipment.
Clicking on packaging leads to a page of honest-to-goodness packaging-specific categories from bottle hoppers to tube fillers. There was a definite pharmaceutical bent as three of the 14 categories listed were crimp cappers cottoners and slat counters.
The site includes a host of ancillary services including inspection appraisal leasing rigging refurbishment and training.
'Marketplace' vs auction
Perhaps one of the most interesting--and by far the most packaging-specific--online marketplaces is that of iMark.com (www.imark.com). The company considers its site an Internet marketplace not a traditional auction site. Sellers are free to list their equipment elsewhere and aren't bound to sell it exclusively via iMark's site. Sellers choose a winning bid but it's the buyer who pays the 5% fee of the winning bid.
The logic according to the company is that buyers are motiviated to buy because they have a need. Sellers may have some equipment sitting in a warehouse and may not be particularly motivated to sell. It's an interesting business model and time will tell whether it works. (We browsed a test version of the site; the site's launch was scheduled for mid-September.)
But for our money what we liked about iMark.com was that it appears to be focused heavily on packaging (and processing) machinery.
Not only are there detailed packaging-specific equipment categories the site offers extremely detailed searches that can be performed within a category. For example as we were browsing the cartoners category a cartoner-specific search menu allowed us to specify for example eight different carton styles three different cartoner technologies the level of automation three different seal types the number of tiers and options such as integral erector or partition inserter. This search menu which is highly machine-specific is different for each packaging equipment category whether it's labeling form/fill/seal or case packing.
While the powerful search capability is probably unnecessary early on if there's only a handful of listings that can be browsed it becomes a crucial tool down the road in the event the site fills out with hundreds of listings.
The costs
Except for iMark.com the sites reviewed here charge the seller to participate in the auction. Listing fees range from nothing to $99 per auction listing. (Multiple like machines can be sold in the same listing.) Commissions representing a percentage of the sale range from 5% to 10% of the final sale price. Most of the sites reviewed here also allow companies to list equipment at fixed prices much like an on-line classifieds service.
If industrial auctions even remotely follow the success of consumer-style auction sites such as eBay they have the potential to offer packaging equipment buyers more equipment at better prices due to a market that's ostensibly more liquid. But packaging buyers must first be swayed to come to the party.
Comments(0)
Add new comment