Shipping Container Sales Software

ContainerAuction.com has been working to develop a market leading software platform to increase the efficiency of shipping container sales. For the past three years we have been working directly with some of the leading companies in container shipping, including global shipping lines and leasing companies, and container traders to create a functional platform that benefits all sides of the transaction. The current result is the Trader platform that can be seen at http://Trader.ContainerAuctoin.com.

Currently, the bottleneck in container sales is access to current inventories. No matter if you're selling one container, or 100 containers, the current practice is to either email a list of available units, or make/receive a phone call to/from the interested buyer. If there are a number of interested buyers, or available containers in a number of locations, the amount of communication involved grows exponentially. To compound issues, container sales aren't typically published online because, aside from tax and legal reasons, the sellers aren't geared to deal with a volume of questions from buyers interested in single containers. There is also a privacy concern related to volume build ups in any given area that could impact the value of the containers.

How does it help container sales?

Inventory: The platform moves a lot of the current aspects of container sales into a secure and centralized online location. Registered container sellers can publish their current inventory online and control the audience that has access to view it. You can read more about access control on this page [http://wiki.containerauction.com/manual/creating-listing].

Communication: With container inventory online, the next step is to centralize and organize communication. Each listing contains a contact button that starts a message thread specifically related to each listing. Any response into or out of the account is both logged in the system and emailed to the receiving party. What's more, to reply to the message you can either log into the system or reply directly to the email. If you reply through the email your response is logged into the system for future reference.

Sales: Once all of the questions are out of the way there's a "bid" and possibly a "buy now" button on each listing. Buyers can place bids on any auction listings, or if the listing is set for an immediate sale they can purchase the listing directly.

Invoicing: When it comes to invoicing, there are two different settings available through the platform: manual and automatic. If you choose manual invoicing, you'll be notified when someone purchases a listing through the platform. From there, you'll need to provide them with an invoice. If you choose automatic invoicing an invoice will be automatically sent to the buyer, and a copy will be sent to you.

One of the other benefits of the container trading platform is that it's software as a service (SaaS). What this means is that there is no program to install or updates to manage - all that is needed to access the platform is an internet connection, and we handle the rest.

If your organization is ready to move the shipping container trading process online and grow your business, or you're curious about how the software works and would like to learn more or see a demonstration, feel free to contact us and we can arrange a convenient time to show you around.