DOMINANT online livestock marketing platform AuctionsPlus has this afternoon announced a new subscription charge on stock agents seeking to list cattle or sheep on the platform.

In the same vein that warehouse retailer CostCo charges customers an annual subscription for the right to purchase their groceries at its stores, AuctionsPlus will from 2027 charge accredited assessors an annual subscription fee to list livestock on the service. At the top level, that fee will be anywhere from $1668 to $2388/year, depending on payment terms (see subscription options below).

Newly accredited assessors will receive two years’ free subscription to support the growth of their business, the company said. Occasional users get their first three listings free each year, before the subscription cuts in. On recent performance, that’s understood to cover about 30pc of accredited assessors.

The AuctionsPlus website currently lists 1328 livestock assessors – 1046 for cattle and 864 for sheep (some do both).

The new subscription fee will apply to all agent assessors, including those working for national agencies Elders and Nutrien, that own the AuctionsPlus business.  However one theory discussed this morning is that Elders and Nutrien will simply deduct their agents’ subscriptions from the companies’ annual shareholder profit dividend from their share of the AuctionsPlus business.

AuctionsPlus started to reach out to its core agency stakeholders about the new subscription fee plan on Monday.  Reaction from stock agents Beef Central has spoken to about the move this morning has been universally negative.

One contact said that if it went ahead, it would be foolish not to assume that agents exposed to the new subscription would simply pass the cost on to their livestock clients. Another said larger agencies with multiple staff using AuctionsPlus may simply pay one subscription, and direct all company business through that.

Spiralling software development costs

AuctionsPlus has used the spiralling cost of software development to enhance the service as the primary reason for the new charge.

In a statement to stakeholders, it says the business has been absorbing rapidly growing (software) costs and security demands as it “delivers and scales a market-leading trading platform.”

“The subscription will keep the platform sustainably resourced now and into the future,” the statement said (read full statement below).

An example of new software features on the AuctionsPlus platform is the ‘Bloodline Verified’ facility, designed to ensure that a commercial cattle vendor making a claim such as ‘Rennylea bloodlines’ on a line of Angus feeders, are indeed carrying significant genetics from that stud.

AuctionsPlus has confirmed that the only studs eligible to be referenced in the new ‘Bloodline verified’ feature are those that interface their sales through AuctionsPlus. A stud using a competing online auction interface facility – Stocklive, for example – is ineligible, unless they pay a fee.

Beef Central was told the development cost for AuctionsPlus’s Bloodline verified button was $500,000. The company employs 13 internal web developers.

“The reality is that these features are costing us more and more to develop,” a spokesman told Beef Central.

“For us to continue to build more and more features, it needs to be adequately resourced. We will be sharing with our agents what the (software) build pipeline looks like over the next 12 months,” the spokesman said.

“What we are trying to do is build more and more tools that make the agent’s life easier and/or faster. We ran a side-by-side comparison recently with an agent and one of their partners, and using a tool we developed a couple of years ago, saved them 43pc of their listing time,” he said.

Sharp and frequent rises in web hosting fees had also added to AuctionsPlus’s costs, the spokesman said.

Beef Central can attest to the spiralling web development costs described by AuctionsPlus, having gone through a major website redesign project this year (stand by for launch in coming months) and spiralling web hosting fees. Despite that, we have managed to keep our daily news and markets intelligence service free of charge for readers to this point, due to the continued generous support of paid advertisers.

Independent agency network RMA only ten days ago held its first online machinery auction, using a new platform on the RMA website. With 75 thriving agency members across Australia, it’s only a small step from selling a grader or a hay baler to selling livestock, one RMA member suggested this morning.

Published below is the AuctionsPlus statement:

AuctionsPlus is introducing a subscription for Assessors who list commercial livestock from early 2027.

The business has been absorbing rapidly growing costs and security demands as it delivers and scales a market-leading trading platform. The subscription will keep the platform sustainably resourced now and into the future.

Subscription revenue will be reinvested into further platform development, designed and shaped with assessors. The focus is tools that keep assessors central to the sales process and give them a real advantage with vendors who expect national market access.

Reinvestment builds on the platform AuctionsPlus has today, delivering continued innovation and value for Assessors, their vendors and buyers. Assessor status, Delivery Agents, stud livestock and machinery sales are not affected. Buying and selling on AuctionsPlus continues as normal.

AuctionsPlus CEO Wyn Snyman said a lot of what the platform had built in recent years started as a conversation with an assessor.

“They told us the problems they needed solved, and we built for them,” Mr Snyman said.

“To keep growing this national marketplace, the platform needs to be sustainably resourced now and into the future. Platforms that stop investing fall behind, and that won’t be the future of AuctionsPlus.”

Over the past two years, AuctionsPlus has invested the majority of its resourcing into new products and tools such as A+ Bloodlines, genetic integrations, Forward+ and LiveAssess.

“We won’t pretend this isn’t a new cost. We’ve worked hard to keep it in proportion to the value Assessors can get from the platform,” Mr Snyman said.

“Our commitment is that AuctionsPlus will remain one of the lowest-cost auction options, accessible year-round.”

Subscription options

Assessors can choose the option that suits how they list:

• • Lite: $0, assessments in up to three sales a year, renews annually
  • Unlimited Annual: $139 a month, unlimited assessments, billed annually
  • Unlimited Monthly: $199 a month, unlimited assessments, billed monthly

Newly accredited Assessors receive two years’ free unlimited subscription to support the growth of their business.

Assessors are invited to have a say in how subscription funds are reinvested to benefit Assessors and the wider industry.

Nothing changes for Assessors before subscriptions open in early 2027. AuctionsPlus is engaging with all Assessors to talk through the change and answer questions.

Full details about the new AuctionsPlus agency subscription can be found here.