Dome Auctions
The Challenge
Dome Auctions aims to redefine the European market for industrial online auctions. With a focus on high-quality machinery and entire factories, it is building a specialized marketplace for buyers and sellers in the industry. A standard solution offered too little flexibility, scalability, and differentiation. Dome wanted its own platform that would allow it to develop the market on its own terms.
The solution
We built Dome Auctions’ proprietary online auction platform from the ground up. In eight months, we brought a robust MVP to market: fast enough to learn from, strong enough to scale internationally. Not an off-the-shelf product or a reliance on an external auction service, but a digital foundation that enables Dome Auctions to conquer the European market for industrial assets.
From ambition to an international auction platform
Dome Auctions made a conscious choice to take ownership. No integration with an existing auction platform. Instead, Dome Auctions chose its own digital marketplace for industrial assets. The ambition was grand, and the first release had to go live quickly. That’s why, together, we narrowed the scope down to the core: a platform that brings buyers and sellers together and is ready for international growth. The first version went live within eight months.
The first auction proved that the foundation was solid
The first live auction took place in Switzerland. Nearly 400 users from 19 countries collectively placed more than 12,000 bids. With this, Dome Auctions immediately proved that a new, specialized platform can bring together international buyers and high-value industrial assets at scale. The platform supports, among other features, proxy bidding, anti-sniping, staggered closing times, combination lots, multiple currencies, and six languages. On the back end, auction administrators gain real-time insight into bidding behavior, popular lots, and financial performance. Buyers automatically receive their invoice and can pick up their purchase using a QR code.
International scale without friction
An international auction platform must continue to operate smoothly even under heavy load. A bid placed in the final seconds automatically extends the auction. Users can set a maximum bid, and thousands of lots can be easily imported, translated, and managed. That’s why we deliberately kept the technical foundation streamlined. Django serves as the foundation. HTMX, Alpine.js, and Server-Sent Events ensure a lightweight and fast user experience. DeepL automatically translates large amounts of lot information, and through a separate marketing API, Dome can immediately use auction data for campaigns. The result is a single international auction platform: simple for bidders, manageable for auction staff, and immediately ready for marketing use. This enables Dome Auctions to run more auctions, open up new markets, and monitor the quality of the listings.
12,000+
Bids during the first auction
19 countries
Participants from the first live auction
6 languages
Available from the first international auction
Ownership from the very first line of code
Dome Auctions deliberately chose to build its own platform, rather than relying on a standard auction solution. As a result, Dome Auctions sets its own course: from new markets and languages to new auction models and functionality. The first release was not an endpoint, but the start of European growth. Dome’s experience in the auction world has resulted in a well-defined roadmap. The technical foundation is built to accommodate new countries, auctions, and features without having to start from scratch. Even seven years from now, the platform will run just as smoothly as it does today.
Are you also building a platform that needs to be fully tailored to your organisation?
Does off-the-shelf software not fit your market or business model? Then we’ll build a platform that lets you stand out, launch faster and grow internationally, with software that works today and will still run just as well seven years from now. Maarten would be happy to brainstorm with you.