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Upside Down
Kirby's Korner · April 21, 2000

The Internet has led to many types of retail that, while not strictly impossible without the Web, would be a lot harder without the back-and-forth and worldwide reach inherent in the Web.

Travel is right in the middle of this revolution.

There are the "name your own price" features on Priceline.com and Expedia.com, where the buyer specifies the price he or she is willing to pay for an item and the site tries to immediately match the specified price with a willing seller.

There are auctions of all sorts. In the most common type, as on eBay and Yahoo!, buyers bid against one another for an item the seller has posted.

Perhaps most intriguing are the "buyer's market" Web sites, where a buyer specifies what it is he or she wants to buy -- and, often, how much he or she is willing to pay -- and sellers respond with offers. One of the Web sites involved in this business, eWanted.com, calls the process an "upside down auction."

The three best known "upside down auction" Web sites launched within a month of one another: eWanted in July 1999 and Respond.com and iWant.com in August.

Rather than actually completing sales online, the sites instead facilitate the process. They provide sellers with access to buyers who are eager to spend money on items they have specified.

One of the best things a retailer can have is a list of highly qualified, likely buyers. Respond, eWanted, and iWant provide that list precisely.

The sites keep the identity of potential buyers secret until the buyer is ready to reveal that information, lessening pressure on the buyer.

Buyers and sellers communicate by e-mail routed through the Web sites' systems to maintain anonymity. Particularly for travel items, the sites expect that at some point the buyer and seller will get on the telephone with one another to work out final details.

IWant says it is looking into other ways to connect buyers and sellers, perhaps through chat sessions on the Web site. EWanted already offers discussion group areas for the exchange of ideas and to build up a community feeling.

Travel is a major part of the Web sites. Respond says its travel section, one of 13 top-level categories of items, receives more postings from buyers than another category. As this article is being written, many more than a 1,000 offers are active in the "Travel and Vacations" section of eWanted.

The interest has not gone unnoticed. Earlier this month, American Express invested in Respond, promising to promote Respond on the American Express merchant Web site, while Respond promotes Amex's services on its Web site.

And last week iWant reached an agreement with the Cruise Lines International Association, giving 21,000 travel agencies affiliated with CLIA a break on the fees iWant charges sellers, and greatly expanding the number of sellers that will respond to buyers' travel requests on the site.

These "upside down auctions" represent a win-win situation for everyone involved. Buyers can save time by letting sellers find them, and they can save money by pitting sellers against one another.

Sellers get another outlet for their products, one of the most highly qualified groups of customers imaginable, and a way to do business on the Internet without having to put up their own Web sites.

I'd like to hear what your experience has been with these sites. As with the Priceline model, I'm a little hesitant of anything new that involves my money. But unlike Priceline, I can't see what I have to lose except the time spent crafting an intelligent "classified ad." Write me at david@ticked.com, include your name and city or town, and I'll try to follow up on this column in future weeks.

This "upside down" approach represents a new paradigm that could not have come about without e-commerce.

David Kirby is the editor of Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.