NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--After five months and 113 sales in which all online bidding on Sothebys.com and eBay.com/sothebys has been delivered through a partnership with Invaluable, Sotheby’s is delighted to announce substantial growth in online participation compared to the equivalent period in 2014. The partnership has seen the number of collectors bidding online increase nearly 55% leading to a 35% increase in the value of successful bids. As these figures show, Invaluable’s technology is helping expand the reach of Sotheby’s auctions to new clients around the world who may not be able to attend in person or over the phone, ensuring those who are bidding online in real-time either via Sothebys.com or eBay.com/sothebys are able to compete with those on the salesroom floor.
As a result of the collaboration, Sotheby's has advanced its digital strategy with a new online salesroom and exciting bidding platform features, including private messaging, along with enhanced video streaming, which has been optimized to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent video attendees without loss of timing or delay. This ensures that all auction participants are able to follow along in real-time, regardless of their location.
“As Sotheby’s continues to expand its reach into the online space, we are extremely pleased to be working with Invaluable as our technology partner to deliver the best possible user experience online,” said David Goodman, Sotheby’s Chief Digital Officer. “The technology integrates seamlessly into our web bidding platforms, helping us to grow the e-commerce portion of our business and attract new clients who enjoy the convenience and accessibility that real-time online bidding provides. Over the course of 113 sales, we have seen rapidly-increasing engagement translating into significant growth and new auction records.”
Invaluable is Sotheby's core technology partner for online bidding. Sotheby’s uses Invaluable’s tools as the single online bidding platform to power sales on sothebys.com and eBay.com/sothebys. Invaluable’s technology manages the bids placed in real-time from online bidders and communicates these to the auctioneer in the salesroom, making it faster and easier for the auctioneer to acknowledge online bids during live sales. The technology also leverages responsive design elements that allow for beautiful and seamless browsing and bidding from mobile devices, in addition to desktop and laptop computers.
“We are thrilled that Sotheby’s chose Invaluable to be their technology partner for online bidding on their world-class auction sales,” said Rob Weisberg, Invaluable CEO. “As the leader in the live online auction space running over 14,000 auctions annually in our own marketplace, this partnership with Sotheby’s was a natural fit for us, and we look forward to continuing to grow the relationship.”
The first joint Invaluable-Sotheby's sale took place on 19th March 2015 in London. Since the launch of the partnership, Invaluable has also enabled online bidding on Sotheby’s sales taking place in New York City, the United Kingdom, Paris, Hong Kong, Doha, Zurich, Milan and Geneva.
Notes To Editors
All percentages compare the periods from the introduction of the Invaluable platform on 17th March to the end of the summer with the equivalent dates in 2014.
A slideshow of the top 10 jewels sold online since the start of the Invaluable and Sotheby’s partnership can be viewed here.
Online purchase span the range of Sotheby’s sales categories and locations, the top ten online purchases made since the start of the Invaluable and Sotheby’s partnership are as follows -
| Auction Title, Location | Sale Date | Lot Description | Price (USD) | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels, New York | 4/21/2015 | Platinum and Diamond Ring | $3,250,000 | ||||||
| Art Contemporain, Paris | 6/2/2015 | Zao Wou Ki, 5.5.60 | $3,001,890 | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels, New York | 4/21/2015 | Fancy Light Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring | $1,930,000 | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels, New York | 4/21/2015 | Platinum, Sapphire and Diamond Ring | $1,930,000 | ||||||
| The Weldon Collection, New York | 4/22/2015 | Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape | $1,330,000 | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels, New York | 4/21/2015 | 18 Karat Gold, Platinum, Sapphire and Diamond Brooch | $1,030,000 | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite, Hong Kong | 4/6/2015 | Fancy Light Pink-Brown Diamond and Diamond Ring | $660,378 | ||||||
| Magnificent Jewels, New York | 4/21/2015 | 18 Karat White Gold, Emerald and Diamond Earrings | $610,000 | ||||||
| Contemporary Art Day Auction, New York | 5/13/2015 | Takashi Murakami, Kitagawa-kun | $490,000 | ||||||
| Impressionist & Modern Art Day Sale, London | 6/25/2015 | Marc Chagall, Le lion amoureux | $459,834 | ||||||
About Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. Sotheby’s became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in eight different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and Sotheby’s BidNow program allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids in real-time from anywhere in the world. Sotheby’s offers collectors the resources of Sotheby’s Financial Services, the world’s only full-service art financing company, as well as private sale opportunities in more than 70 categories, including S|2, the gallery arm of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art department, as well as Sotheby’s Diamonds and Sotheby’s Wine. Sotheby’s has a global network of 90 offices in 40 countries and is the oldest company listed on the New York Stock Exchange (BID).
About Invaluable
Invaluable, the world’s leading online live auction marketplace, features a live online bidding platform that allows collectors and dealers to bid in real-time in auctions held around the world. As the leading developer of SaaS and e-commerce applications for the auction industry, Invaluable provides auction houses with e-commerce and marketing solutions, as well as auction management software. Invaluable’s best-in-class historical price database includes more than 58 million complete auction results, totaling more than $204 billion in value. Founded in 1989 and headquartered in Boston, Invaluable also has an office in the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.Invaluable.com or follow us on Twitter: @InvaluableLive.
