Franchising + e-auction = ???
The idea of combining franchising and e-auctions is divided into to possible businesses, as I think.
On the one hand, the company can provide services of Internet auctions bidding. I wrote about it a bit earlier when I told about eBay franchises. Really, not many people are enough familiar with the procedures of selling and buying goods through the Net. They can overcharge or sell for too low price. Ordinary people usually don’t have many good references and this can decrease the possibility to get all possible advantages of e-auction…
So, this kind of franchise business is developing now and it concerns not only eBay auction but any other – cars (like Copart), web-design and software development services (like Elance) and so on.
On the other hand, big e-auctions start selling franchises themselves. Here we are not speaking about consulting or assistance services. Usually, the system works the following way. Franchisee gets the necessary software to start the auction himself. Why people will use this small one instead of the main? The main reason is territory or specialization on particular kind of products. But territory is the main reason. Franchisee has the opportunity to meet the needs (and legislation) of particular state or country. And if to speak about different countries the main advantage will be using of native language.
So, I think that franchising + e-auction = good business opportunity.