Are you ready to hear about a clever new tool? It’s time to take a closer look at ‘Ultimo’. Ultimo gives the highest bidder—and only the highest bidder—an extra five minutes to put in their best and final offer after an auction ends.

Ultimo: After-auction bidding

Let’s say you’re the highest bidder when the auction finishes. With Ultimo, you’ll receive an email or a browser notification inviting you to continue bidding (see the landing page to find out more about browser notifications). Soon, you’ll be able to use Ultimo directly from MyBids too.

Using Ultimo is nearly effortless. Just go to the relevant car detail page. Increase your bid. And that’s it. But do it quickly. Because after the auction ends, you have only five minutes to act. As soon as these five minutes have ticked away, your opportunity will disappear and the auction will be definitively closed.

Why use Ultimo?

There are different situations when Ultimo will come in handy:

Situation 1: There aren’t a lot of bids

There are auctions that attract fewer bids than others. You might win one of these auctions, but without the competition, your bid could still be on the low side. This means the seller might not accept it. And if that happens, you’ll be going home empty-handed. Ultimo gives you the opportunity to give your best offer and secure yourself a car!

Situation 2: A quick discussion with your customer

A lot of our buyers now bid on cars for specific customers. It’s a great way to secure a super-quick turnover! But what if you contact your customer—after placing a bid and winning the auction—and discover they would have been happy to place a higher bid? With Ultimo, you’re able to adjust the bid and optimize the chances of securing the car for them.

Situation 3: Opportunities on zero-bid cars

You’ve probably already noticed just how many cars are auctioned on our platform … Zillions! It’s inevitable that some of them won’t receive any bids. But what would happen if you placed a bid on one of these zero-bid cars in the last few minutes of the auction? There’s a pretty good chance you’ll win that auction. And then your Ultimo privileges kick in—you get the time you need to contact the customer who is interested in this car and increase your bid. You’ll be increasing the reasons for the seller to approve your bid. This means that in just a few moments you’ll have found the right car for your customer. How brilliant does this make you look?

Which auctions is Ultimo for?

Ultimo is valid for any auctions with the following icon: 5’. Basically, you’re able to use Ultimo for all auctions, except x-Time and a few of those very particular auctions you occasionally come across.

There’s more still to come …

We tested Ultimo in April and May with some randomly selected customers. We also tested a price barometer at the time. The price barometer had red, orange and green zones to indicate how likely a bid would be to win the car. How convenient is that? Before we integrate it into the OPENLANE website, it needs a little fine-tuning. Our plan is to launch it later this year, so keep your eye out for it! It’s an excellent way to optimize your bidding strategy.

Do you have any feedback or questions about Ultimo or the Price Barometer? Is there anything else you would like to know about? Contact me at [email protected]. I’ll get back to you before you know it.

Keep an eye out for my next post. You’ll find out about ‘Similar cars’.

Kind regards,

Gino Vleminckx

Chief Commercial Officer

OPENLANE