Join early access

Timed online auctions for Shopify

Reliable auctions on your own store.

Run timed auctions on your own Shopify storefront. You keep your customers, your brand and your checkout, and the auction holds up when it matters most: the final minutes.

  • No price leaks on live lots.
  • The clock never ends early.
  • No cancelled winners.
Join early access See how it works

Founding Merchant Programme: a flat monthly fee, never a cut of your sales.

Vendue. Every bid counts, every sale settles.

Illustration: the Vendue auction block on a merchant’s own product page: a 1970s stainless diver’s watch, current bid £1,420, twelve people watching and 47 seconds left, with maximum bidding and Buy it now. When the auction ends, the winning bidder is invoiced and pays through the merchant’s own Shopify checkout.

Why Vendue

Three ways to run an auction. Each one comes with a catch.

Specialist sellers end up choosing between the audience, the effort and the risk. Vendue is built so you don’t have to.

Option one

Sell on an auction marketplace

An audience on day one, and none of the work.

But the bidders are the marketplace’s customers, not yours. And it takes a cut of every sale, for as long as you sell there.

With Vendue

You own everything

Your customers, your brand, your checkout, your data. Vendue never sits between you and your buyers, and never harvests their details.

  • Bidders stay your customers, on your storefront
  • Winners pay in your normal Shopify checkout
  • Bidder emails carry your logo, colours and words
  • A flat monthly fee: you keep the full value of every sale

Option two

Build auctions yourself

Total control, on your own store, keeping every customer.

But it is real engineering: maximum bidding, reserves, soft close and settlement, all built, tested and maintained by you.

With Vendue

Real auctions, native to your store

Proper auction mechanics on your own product pages, not a bolted-on form. Set a lot up once, or a hundred at a time.

  • Maximum (proxy) bidding, reserves and Buy It Now
  • Your own increment ladder and anti-snipe soft close
  • Scheduled starts, “coming soon” teasers and Notify me
  • Templates and bulk create for many lots at once

Option three

Add an auction app to your store

Ownership and no build, which is what you want.

Which puts everything on one question: how does it behave in the final minutes, when the lot you care about most is the one under the heaviest load?

With Vendue

Reliable at the close

Every bid is counted, the right bidder wins, and the sale always becomes a paid Shopify order, however hard the last minute gets.

  • Every bid counts, every sale settles
  • The clock never ends early
  • No cancelled winners
  • No price leaks on live lots

How it works

You set it up. Vendue runs it.

From a product in your catalogue to a paid order, without leaving Shopify.

  1. Pick a product

    Any product in your catalogue becomes a lot. Its images, description and shipping stay exactly as they are.

  2. Set the terms

    Start price, reserve, Buy It Now, the increment ladder, and when it opens and closes. Reuse a template, or set up many lots in one pass.

  3. It goes live on your page

    The bidding block appears on the product page with the live price and a countdown. Your normal buy button steps aside while the lot is running.

  4. It closes properly

    A bid in the last two minutes extends the timer. When the bidding stops, the lot closes and the top bidder wins.

  5. The sale settles

    The winner is invoiced through Shopify and pays in your own checkout. You watch it land in the dashboard.

When the reserve isn’t met

A close under your reserve isn’t a lost sale.

A lot that finishes below the reserve is normally just “unsold”. Vendue gives you two ways to turn it into an order instead (both optional, and chosen per lot).

Neither path ever reveals a bidder’s maximum, and neither one sells below your reserve without your say-so.

Max Included in the Max plan.

Path one

Second chance: the bidder decides

If the leader’s hidden maximum would have met your reserve, Vendue offers them the lot at the reserve, in the widget and by email. Their maximum only decides whether the offer is made; it never sets the price. They pay the published reserve, by their own choice.

Path two

Near miss: you decide

If the final price lands within a margin you set (within 10% of the reserve, say), Vendue asks whether you’ll take it. It is also where a declined second chance goes next.

What’s in it

The auction mechanics your lots actually need.

Everything here is built and shipping, not a roadmap.

Set up

Decide the terms once.

Set the rules for a lot, or for a whole consignment, and reuse them every time.

Reserve pricesSet a floor. Nothing sells below it unless you say so.

Bidders can see when the reserve hasn’t been met. If a lot ends under it, you can still recover the sale (see second chance and near miss).

Increment laddersFixed steps, or a ladder that grows with the price.

Set your own steps for each price band. The bidding block always shows bidders the exact next bid, so nobody has to work it out.

Scheduled startsLots open on their own, on time.

Set a start time and the lot opens by itself, with bidding live on the product page from that moment.

Coming-soon teasers and Notify me Standard & MaxShow a lot before it opens.

A teaser page with a countdown and the exact start time. Bidders can tap Notify me, or add the start to their calendar, and get a “now live” email when bidding opens.

Templates and bulk create Standard & MaxSave your usual settings, then apply them to many lots at once.

A template’s settings are fixed onto each lot when it’s created, so changing your defaults later never alters an auction that is already running.

While it runs

On your pages, in your theme.

Bidding happens on your own product pages, with the live price and a countdown in front of every watcher.

Product-page biddingThe bidding block sits inside your own theme.

It’s a theme app block you place on your product template. While a lot is live it hides your normal Add to cart and price, so nobody can buy around the auction.

Maximum biddingBidders set a maximum; Vendue bids for them.

Vendue bids only as far as it takes to keep them in the lead, and their maximum is never shown to anyone else.

Buy It NowA fixed price that ends the auction early.

Available until bidding passes a point you choose, then it steps aside. Taking it needs a second confirmation, so nobody buys by accident.

Anti-snipe soft closeA late bid extends the timer.

A bid in the final two minutes pushes the end time out, so a lot ends when the bidding stops, not when the clock happens to run out.

Auctions listingAn auctions page with live countdowns.

Listing and featured blocks for your storefront, so browsers can find what’s open right now.

After the auction

The sale lands in Shopify.

The winner pays in your checkout, and every bidder hears from you, in your brand.

Automatic settlementThe winner is invoiced through Shopify.

Vendue creates the order at the winning price and sends the invoice, and the winner pays in your normal checkout. You follow the payment through in the dashboard.

Second chance and near miss MaxA lot that ends under the reserve can still sell.

Two optional ways to turn “unsold” into an order. How they work.

Branded bidder emailsOutbid, winning and settlement emails, in your brand.

Your logo and colour on every plan, and your own words from Standard. On Max, send from your own domain, so emails arrive from you rather than from an app.

Admin dashboardEvery lot, its bids and its outcome in one view.

Inside Shopify admin, alongside the rest of your store.

The last minute

Everything you care about happens in the final sixty seconds.

Not the demo. Not the quiet Tuesday. The minute when every watcher turns up at once, the bids come in threes, and the result has to be right the first time. That is the minute Vendue is built for.

It stays quick when the lot gets busy

The live price is pushed to everyone watching, not fetched over and over. A lot with a crowd behaves like a lot with three people, so the last minute doesn’t turn into a queue at the exact moment your bidders are least patient.

A busy lot never slows your store

Bidding runs on Vendue’s engine, not through your theme. However hot a lot gets, the rest of your storefront (and your checkout) carries on at its normal speed.

An accepted bid is accepted

If a bidder sees their bid land, it counted. There is no moment where a confirmation can be taken back, and no bid that quietly goes missing in the rush.

One answer to who won

Two bids can land in the same instant. Only one of them is first, and Vendue is never unsure which. The winner and the price are decided once, and they stay decided.

The hard parts are ours to worry about. You should never have to think about them.

  • Every bid counts, every sale settles
  • The clock never ends early
  • No cancelled winners
  • No price leaks on live lots

Measured, not asserted

The numbers we hold ourselves to.

Speed claims are easy to make and hard to check. Here are ours, with the conditions attached.

under 250 ms

  • 99 in 100

Price on every screen

From the bid landing to the new price on every other watcher’s screen.

under 150 ms

  • 99 in 100

Bid confirmed

From placing a bid to it being confirmed back to the bidder.

under 500 ms

  • worst case

Closing accuracy

The gap between a lot’s end time and when it actually closed.

0

Bids lost

Across 102,435 accepted test bids. Not merchant traffic. We have not launched.

Measured with 4,000 people watching a single auction, taking about 25 bids per second through the final minutes. Real-world times will be higher, depending on your bidders’ location, internet provider, connection and device. How we test, and what we commit to

Who it’s for

Built for specialist sellers.

Unique, high-interest stock, where the price is decided by the people who want it, and where a broken close costs you the sale and the customer. If you already run auctions on your own store, Vendue is built for you.

  • Trading cards
  • Comics
  • Watches
  • Jewellery
  • Antiques
  • Luxury fashion
  • Fishing tackle
  • Vintage furniture

Pricing

A flat monthly fee. Never a share of your sales.

Pick the plan that matches how many auctions you run. Every plan includes the reliability engine, and none of them takes a cut of what you sell.

Billing period

Free

Try Vendue on a real lot.

$0

No card needed

3 lots a month

Everything you need to run a real auction:

  • The reliability engine
  • Maximum bidding, reserves and Buy It Now
  • Soft close and your own increment ladder
  • Scheduled starts
  • Product-page bidding and an auctions listing
  • Settlement into a Shopify invoice
  • Bidder emails in your logo and colour

Help centre

Join early access

Basic

For sellers running regular auctions.

$250$25/year/month

$20.83 a month · save $50

or $250 a year · save $50

100 lots a month

Everything in Free, plus:

  • Room for regular weekly or monthly sales

Email support

Join early access

Recommended

Standard

For established sellers running auctions at volume.

$490$49/year/month

$40.83 a month · save $98

or $490 a year · save $98

500 lots a month

Everything in Basic, plus:

  • Bulk create: many lots in one pass
  • Reusable auction templates
  • Coming-soon teasers and Notify me
  • Your own words in every bidder email

Email support · 7-day free trial

Join early access

Max

For high-value sellers who use reserves.

$790$79/year/month

$65.83 a month · save $158

or $790 a year · save $158

Unlimited lots (fair use)

Everything in Standard, plus:

  • Second chance and near miss: recover sales below reserve
  • Send from your own domain

Priority support · 7-day free trial

Join early access

Founding Merchant Programme

Every feature and 500 lots for $25 a month for your first 12 months.

Plans open at public launch. Until then we’re taking a first group of 20 merchants, who help shape what ships next.

Join early access
  • A lot counts when it opens. Lots cancelled before they open don’t count.
  • Limits never interrupt a running auction. They apply only when you create or schedule a new lot.
  • Downgrading never cancels anything you’ve already scheduled.
  • Prices are in US dollars. Shopify adds your plan to your usual Shopify bill, in your own currency.
  • No commission, ever. Collectibles marketplaces typically take 12–14% of every sale; Vendue takes none of it.
Compare every feature
Features included in each Vendue plan
FeatureFreeBasicStandardMax
Lots per month3100500Unlimited (fair use)
The auction itself
Reliability engine✓✓✓✓
Maximum bidding, reserves, Buy It Now✓✓✓✓
Soft close, custom increment ladders✓✓✓✓
Scheduled starts✓✓✓✓
Product-page bidding and auctions listing✓✓✓✓
Settlement into a Shopify invoice✓✓✓✓
Bidder emails in your logo and colour✓✓✓✓
Admin dashboard✓✓✓✓
Running at scale
Bulk createNot included—Not included—✓✓
Auction templatesNot included—Not included—✓✓
Coming-soon teasers, Notify me and “now live” emailNot included—Not included—✓✓
Your own words in bidder emailsNot included—Not included—✓✓
Every sale, your brand
Second chance and near missNot included—Not included—Not included—✓
Send from your own domainNot included—Not included—Not included—✓
Support
SupportHelp centreEmailEmailPriority
Free trial——7 days7 days

Marketplace commission as published by Catawiki (12.5%) and eBay (13.6% in most categories), September 2026.

Questions

The things merchants ask first.

Is Vendue a marketplace?

No. Vendue runs auctions on your own Shopify storefront. Bidders browse your store, bid on your product pages and pay in your checkout. There is no Vendue marketplace to send them to, and no other seller’s lots sitting next to yours.

Where do buyers pay?

In your normal Shopify checkout. When the auction ends, the winner is invoiced through Shopify at the winning price. Payments, taxes, shipping and order records work exactly as they do for every other order you take.

Which currency do bidders bid in?

Your store’s currency, whatever that is. Everyone bids in the same currency, so the highest bid is always the highest bid. It never depends on an exchange rate moving during the auction. A bidder abroad bids in your currency and pays the invoice in it too, so their own bank handles the conversion and may add a fee.

Do bidders need an account?

They bid using a normal customer account on your store. Someone who isn’t signed in is sent to your usual login page and comes straight back to the lot.

What if there’s a technical problem in the final minutes?

Every bid your bidders have seen accepted still counts, with the same price and the same leader. If our auction engine suffers a technical issue, no auction ends until it’s resolved, and auctions that were due to end in the meantime get a fair final stretch: their anti-snipe time again after a short blip of under 2 minutes, or 15 minutes after anything up to half an hour.

For anything longer, you choose in your settings: the same time the next day, a fresh final stretch, or holding the auction until you set a new end time. Bidders see the new end time on the product page and, after anything over 2 minutes, are emailed it too.

Do you take a cut of my sales?

No. Vendue is a flat monthly subscription: free for up to 3 lots a month, then $25, $49 or $79 depending on how many auctions you run and which features you need. What you sell is yours.

Does it work with my theme?

Yes. The bidding block is a theme app block you drop onto your product template, so it renders inside your own theme with your fonts and layout. While a lot is live it hides the normal buy button and price, so the item can’t be bought around the auction.

Can I run auctions and normal products at the same time?

Yes. Only products with a live lot show the auction block. The rest of your catalogue sells the way it always has.

What stops sniping?

A bid in the last two minutes extends the timer. A lot ends when the bidding stops, not when the clock happens to run out. So a late bidder wins by bidding more, not by bidding later.

Founding Merchant Programme

Run your next auction on your own store.

Vendue is opening to a first group of specialist merchants. Tell us where you sell and what you sell, and we’ll be in touch before we open the programme.

Say “ven-DEW”. It’s the old word for a public auction.