Rules for an online auction on your Wix site: increments, soft close, reserve price and unpaid winners
By Kayabyte
Disclosure: I make Live Auctions & Bidding, a Wix app that I describe in the second half. The first half is general advice about auction rules that applies to any tool, including a manual setup. Checked on 4 November 2026.
Setting up the auction page is the easy part. Most of the arguments with bidders come from rules that were not decided before the first bid: how much a bid must go up, what happens in the last seconds, whether there is a hidden minimum, and what you do when the winner does not pay. Decide these five things first and write them where bidders can read them.
1. What is the starting bid and the bid increment?
The starting bid is the lowest first bid. The increment is how much each new bid must beat the current price by. A fixed increment is easy to explain (“each bid must be at least 5 more”). It works badly when one auction holds both a 20 item and a 2,000 item, because the same step is too big for one and too small for the other. If you run mixed lots, set the increment per item, or use steps that grow with the price.
2. What happens in the last seconds?
“Sniping” means bidding in the last second so nobody can answer. Some bidders find it clever, others find it unfair, and it makes the final price depend on who has the faster connection. The usual fix is a soft close: a bid that arrives near the end moves the end time a few minutes later, so others can respond. If you want a hard end instead, say “the auction ends at 8:00 pm sharp, no extension” in the rules, because bidders will assume one or the other.
3. Do you want a reserve price?
A reserve is a hidden minimum. If bidding ends below it, the item is not sold. It protects you on valuable items, but it can also put people off, so some charity sales skip it and simply use a fair starting bid. If you use one, tell bidders that there is a reserve and whether they can see if it has been met. Never change it after bids arrive.
4. Who is allowed to bid?
Asking for a full account puts people off, and asking for nothing invites fake bids under other people’s email addresses. A common middle path is a name and an email address, with one email check on the first bid. Decide it before you publish, and say in the rules whether bids can be removed and bidders blocked.
5. What happens if the winner does not pay?
This is the question people forget. Set a payment deadline, say what happens when it passes (relist the item, or offer it to the next bidder), and send a reminder before the deadline. Decide whether you will accept payment in another way, such as a bank transfer, and mark the item paid by hand.
Can you run these rules on Wix by hand?
Partly. A form can collect bids and you can update the highest bid on a page yourself, as in How to run an online auction on a Wix website. A manual setup cannot extend the end time when a late bid arrives, and the countdown does not update by itself. If you expect more than a handful of bids, an app is easier.
How Live Auctions & Bidding handles each rule (mine)
This section follows the app page as I read it on 4 November 2026. The page is the source if anything differs, and plans and prices change, so I do not repeat them here.
- Increment. The page says the first bid must meet the starting bid, and after that “each bid must be the current price plus the increment”. You set a fixed increment, or let the app use “a standard ladder by price band”.
- Soft close. “A bid in the last few minutes moves the end to that many minutes after the bid.” The default is 2 minutes, and setting it to 0 switches it off.
- Reserve price. The page lists it as a Pro feature: a hidden minimum, and “Bidders see whether the reserve is met, never the amount.”
- Who can bid. Bidders bid with a name and email, and the first bid from a new email waits for a confirmation link. The page says Pro can require a Wix member login. You can remove a bid, and block an email address.
- Sealed bids. For a silent auction, “bid amounts stay hidden until the end”.
- Unpaid winners. The winner gets an email with a pay link that opens your site’s checkout at the winning price. You set the payment deadline (48 hours by default). If the winner does not pay, the page lists relisting, marking the item as paid if they paid another way, and, on Pro, offering it to the next highest bidder.
What it does not do, from the same page: the winner’s payment goes through your own Wix checkout, so your site needs a payment method connected, and the winner pays after the auction ends, not at the time of bidding.
FAQ
What is a soft close in an online auction? A rule that extends the end time when a bid arrives in the last minutes, so nobody wins by bidding in the last second.
What is a good bid increment? One that is small enough that people feel they can top the last bid and big enough that the auction does not take hundreds of bids. A step that grows with the price band suits mixed lots.
Should a charity auction have a reserve price? That is your call. Some charity sales use a fair starting bid instead of a hidden minimum.
What if a winner does not pay? Decide the deadline in advance. Then relist, offer the item to the next bidder, or mark it paid if they paid another way.
Does Wix have a built-in auction? My other guide, How to run an online auction on a Wix website, goes through what Wix does on its own and links the Wix help pages.
App page last checked: 4 November 2026. Spotted something out of date? Write to support@kayabyte.dev and I’ll fix it.