Online bidding and e-auctions are the utmost media that connects buyers and sellers over a single platform. Just like everything else, technology has gotten hold of the traditional process of bidding and shifted the old physical auction halls to e-auctions in the virtual world.
Over the years e-auctions have become a basic necessity for businesses to crack the best offers and deals in various government and private industry sectors. But the internet being prone to a lot of fraud companies and hackers, it is essential for the bidders to authenticate their identity through a government-issued digital signature certificate class 3.
E-auctions and its various features:
E-auction allows both buyers and sellers to become the primary bidders.
- Direct Auction: When the buyer is the bidder and
- Reverse Auction: When the seller is the bidder.
Moreover, whether you are into a direct or reverse auction, you can opt for majorly three types of bidding interactions:
- Business to Business
- Business to Consumer
- Consumer to Consumer
Benefits of Online bidding or e-auctions:
Compared to the physical bidding process, e-auctions have a number of advantages that make it quite a popular and frequently used process among numerous bidders, buyers and sellers.
- Convenience:
Taking part in e-auction can be done sitting inside the comfort of your home or office. All you need is a laptop or computer and proper running internet connectivity. Moreover, the process is quite simple and anyone comfortable over the net can use it to place an appropriate bid. No experienced labor is needed, nor have you to invest in training them.
Thus, it saves a lot of your energy, travel time and money.
- No Geographical Limitations:
Unlike physical auction halls, e-auction is not bound by states, cities or countries. A seller can auction their assets for global buyers and vice versa. Traveling to a different country for an auction is tiring, inconvenient and expensive. But with e-auction, everything is just right at the tips of your fingers.
- Greater Transparency:
Keeping pace with modern technology, e-auction offers a transparent medium for both buyers and sellers. Open and available for all, the e-auction process integrates and streamlines the bidding process quickly and easily.
- Better Security and Privacy Maintenance:
Almost every bidding website requires an Information Technology Act approved valid and encrypted digital signature certificate class 3. This ensures when you log in to the e-auction portal with your credentials, your data is safely exchanged and reaches the right receiver. Moreover, it also authenticates your genuineness and encrypts your information to protect your privacy in the digital world.
Why a digital signature certificate class 3 is essential to interact in online bidding?
Online bidding is quite a simple process that you can commence sitting at your home or office. Various company assets and properties are listed on the bidding website for you to choose, inspect and consider its condition. Once you have decided on your choice of property to buy, you can move to the next step. That is, stepping inside the e-auction hall.
In order to enter the e-auction portal, place the first bid and view the highest price offered on the particular property, it is mandatory for bidders to possess a valid digital signature certificate class 3 which has been issued by a government authorized body.
It not only proves your genuineness as a bidder but also secures your personal credentials from potential mishandling over the internet. But also gives the highest level of security and best used authenticating documents for e-tendering, e-procurement, e-auctions and more. It usually comes with a validity of one, two or three years and can be renewed after the end of its validity term.
Who can register for a digital signature certificate class 3:
Unlike class 1 and class 2, class 3 DSC provides the best security to safeguard your identity and encrypt your private credentials on any online transactions and application filing process. As a result, there are specific industries and signatories who are only liable for this signature certificate. Some of them include:
- Company Directors
- Bank Officials
- Pvt Ltd/Ltd
- Partnership Firm
- Individual Proprietor
- Foreign Organization
- Importers/ Exporters
What type of digital signature certificate class 3 is required during e-auction?
There are mainly two types of class 3 signature certificates approved by the Information Technology Act.
- Only Signing Certificate: used while signing a document online and,
- Signing and Encryption Certificate:
E-auction and online bidding websites require this type of digital signing certificate which is assembled with a special encryption password that protects your private data when they are shared and transferred over a digital medium.
Online bidding and e-auction have gained immense popularity among buyers and sellers as it gives a lot of convenience and transparency which is not available in case of a physical auction process. If you are new to bidding, then e-auction is the easiest medium to learn and inspect the tactics of the trade and if you are an experienced bidder, e-auction can give you the opportunity to profit more with less effort.
But don’t forget to register for a class 3 digital signature certificate or renew it, as it is necessary.