In a city that is so defined by its history, antiques have always had a major presence in Bath’s shops and auction houses. Here we meet Swedish company Auctionet which was set up in 2011 by founder and CEO Niklas Söderholm. Auctionet holds online auctions, creating a marketplace where auction houses from all over Europe sell furniture, art, design items and collectibles. The concept was to provide a solution to the fact that the auction industry had not been taking advantage of the rapidly changing, tech-fuelled demands of the 21st century.
The company launched in the UK in 2019 and purchased Lawrences Auctioneers in 2022 because they wanted a well-established provincial auction house that was selling in high volumes so they could demonstrate the effectiveness of their auction model. Andy Sagar, who previously worked at Lawrences as Operations Manager, is now Managing Director of Auctionet’s UK operations.
“Auctionet’s core philosophy is based around what is known as Lean Processing (LP). This is the idea that the way in which you work should be done at maximum efficiency and with as little waste as possible”, says Andy.
The items are sold at online auction, much like eBay, but all items are carefully inspected, described and photographed by experts, so buyers can see a comprehensive range of pictures and information about each item, allowing them to bid with confidence.
This is achieved by Auctionet working with individual auction houses to create a system that will process and sell items quickly and efficiently. This means not wasting working hours on manual processes that could be automated. “We help our auction houses to create physical set-ups within their premises that allow them to create a flow system of goods so that items can pass through the necessary stages of cataloguing and photography. Then the system takes over with an automated bidding mechanism so buyers can see all the information they need online – this is called continuous online selling”, says Andy.
When buyers scan a barcode on an item they can see all the photographs, the description, the condition assessment, the stage of bidding, and can get a shipping quote. When they choose to place a bid the system will also tell them whether they have hit the reserve price. This process allows Auctionet to upload, process and sell items every day.
While the hammer price of items such as brown furniture, ceramics and glassware has dropped over the last few years, the cost of handling them has gone up with increased storage costs and wages. Also when physical sales only happen bi-monthly or quarterly, there are peaks and troughs in income. With over a million buyers on its books Auctionet sells items faster, reducing the cost of selling an item so that the margin is higher.
Buyers are able to purchase items from the 77 auction houses Auctionet has on its platform across Europe and can order transport on virtually all of them which means they can have them delivered either to their door, or to their nearest Auctionet-affiliated auction house.
Auctionet is currently working with seven auction houses in the UK and is expecting this to grow significantly in 2025. Buyer numbers are increasing by about 5000 per month. “There is a big future ahead of us. We understand that the UK market has its own identity and we are not trying to remove that – we are just helping the market to thrive.”
To read more about Bath’s best auctioneers and antiques specialists, visit thebathmagazine.co.uk