Website Auction Didn’t Meet Reserve on Flippa? Now You Can Negotiate

More than 55% of the auctions on Flippa result in a sale, which is not a bad success rate. However, of those which finish unsuccessfully, almost half have bids – they just fall a little short of the seller’s reserve.

Until now, these sellers were left with two options:

1. Re-list their website and go through the effort of managing another auction
2. Give up on selling their website

But now there’s a third option. Flippa now gives the seller some time to negotiate with the highest bidder, when the site has failed to sell at auction.

So how does it work?

When an auction ends below the reserve, the seller’s view of the auction page now includes a “Make an Offer” link.

By clicking on a link, the seller can provide an offer amount and message for the highest bidder. The seller can then manage their negotiations through the auction page.

This sends a message to the highest bidder allowing them to accept the bid, reject the bid, or make a counter offer.

If a counter offer is made, the process continues until the buyer and seller ultimately agree on a price (or otherwise end negotiations).

This successful outcome is then reflected on the auction page, congratulations!

Note that the opportunity to initiate negotiations remains in place for 3 days and the process is only visible to the buyer and seller. The listing will remain in the “Ended Unsold” area on Flippa until the negotiations are successful.

This “Highest Bidder Negotiation” feature is a great way for sellers to avoid the effort of re-listing their website on Flippa – especially when a seller might have, to put it mildly, over-estimated the initial market value of their site.

As always, we look forward to hearing feedback from our buyers and sellers on this new feature below.