The role of online auctions
Online auctions—or e-auctions—are real-time negotiation events where pre-qualified suppliers compete dynamically. Unlike traditional tendering (RFP/RFQ) where bids are static and submitted once, an auction allows participants to see their relative market position and improve their offers step-by-step.
Fluenta One supports launching auctions directly from an existing RFx event, carrying over all specifications, items, and invited suppliers automatically.
Supported auction types
Fluenta One accommodates various auction logics to fit different market conditions, categories, and negotiation strategies:
Classic reverse competition where suppliers bid against each other in real-time
Price changes in steps, participants decide at each level whether to stay in
Speed-based competition where the first valid bid wins
Besides price, other parameters can be bid on, ranking determined by weighted total score
For selling company assets, where buyers bid against each other to raise the price
Auction strategy and parameters
To ensure fairness and efficiency, the issuer can configure precise rules within the creation wizard:
- Starting and reserve prices: The initial price to beat, and the ceiling price above which bids are not considered valid.
- Bid decrements: The minimum and maximum amount (or percentage) by which a new bid must improve upon the previous one, preventing micro-bidding.
- Dynamic extensions (Soft-close): To prevent last-second "sniping", any bid submitted near the deadline automatically extends the remaining time (e.g., by 3 minutes).
Bidding visibility and supplier experience
To manage the competitive dynamic, the issuer controls what information is visible to suppliers during the live event:
- Rank visibility: Suppliers only see their current position on the leaderboard (e.g., "Your rank: 2nd").
- Best bid visibility: Suppliers see the leading price they need to beat, but not who submitted it.
- Full transparency: Suppliers see all bids in an anonymized format.
Advanced rules and local variants
For regulated industries or high-pressure negotiation environments, the system supports specialized rule configurations:
- Sealed Bid: A secure format where participants submit a single, confidential bid. Fluenta One supports both first-price and second-price (Vickrey) settlement methods.
- The Brazilian rule (Pregão): After each round, suppliers who fail to improve upon the leading bid are permanently eliminated.
- The Chilean rule: At the end of each round, suppliers whose bids are worse than the active average are eliminated.
Audit trail and logging
Because live auctions are fast-paced, the platform enforces strict security and compliance measures:
- Server-side timestamps: Every bid is logged with millisecond precision, ensuring an objective sequence of events even during simultaneous submissions.
- Immutable audit log: Every bid, retraction, and system action is recorded in an unalterable log, providing a complete audit trail for compliance purposes.
Integrating results
Once the auction concludes, the final results are instantly synced back to the main Fluenta One evaluation matrix. The procurement team can weigh these final pricing outcomes against qualitative scores (such as technical compliance, ESG, or references) before making the final award decision and converting the terms into a contract.
