NEW YORK, NY.- Today, LiveAuctioneers and ARTA announce a new partnership that redefines the experience of purchasing art, antiques and luxury items auctioned online. Innovative leaders in auction technology and logistics solutions, respectively, LiveAuctioneers and ARTA have joined forces to provide automated shipping solutions for auction houses and buyers on the world’s largest online auction marketplace for one-of-a-kind items. Leveraging ARTA’s API to streamline the logistical complications that come with selling high-value, oversized, or fragile goods online, LiveAuctioneers enables auction-house partners with the ability to offer buyers instant shipping quotes that can be booked during the checkout process. ARTA will also provide white-glove fulfillment on behalf of the auction houses under this partnership.

“Thanks to investments in trust, technology, and innovation, LiveAuctioneers’ auction-house partners saw a massive 31% year-over-year increase in items sold online during 2019,” said Phil Michaelson, CEO of LiveAuctioneers. “We look forward to partnering with ARTA to further this growth by providing a better shipping experience for online buyers and for auction-house partners. LiveAuctioneers' API integration with ARTA reflects our commitment to empowering auction houses with the most innovative technologies that help them operate more efficiently.”

Based on customer reviews, auction houses on LiveAuctioneers who offered a transparent and seamless shipping experience saw twice the rate of returning buyers in 2019. Now, LiveAuctioneers can support auction houses with a trusted shipping solution that dramatically improves customer retention thanks to ARTA’s API, which can be integrated with platforms selling items requiring white glove logistics and services to streamline the checkout process and automate shipping.

The first of its kind, the API integration with LiveAuctioneers allows auction houses to deliver an elevated customer experience with no additional overhead, and joins a robust suite of award-winning services and features LiveAuctioneers offers to more than 5,000 premier auction houses worldwide, including online payment collection, white label software, fraud protection, free consignment-sourcing tools, and more. For no added cost, auction houses on LiveAuctioneers can extend to their customers premium logistics services from ARTA, which has been working with auction houses since launching nearly five years ago, and serves as a preferred shipper for international and online houses like Phillips, Paddle8, Hindman and artnet with its innovative ARTA for Auctions platform. ARTA has managed shipments to/from more than 60 countries and is trusted by thousands of clients all over the world.

“This partnership automates the post-sale shipping process for LiveAuctioneers’ auction-house partners and their clients, a process previously handled offline and at the onus of the buyer,” said Adam Fields, CEO of ARTA. “Auction houses will be able to offer shipping and fulfillment services to their buyers — in many cases for the first time — greatly improving the customer experience. Moreover, our goal is to help these auction houses get more bids by sharing the total purchase price up front, having access to an international fulfillment network, and providing packing and transport solutions for any item, including fine art, design objects, jewelry and furniture.”

The first group of select auction houses to benefit from the LiveAuctioneers and ARTA partnership includes Gray’s Auctioneers, Neue Auctions and Helmuth Stone Gallery, with integration-enabled auctions slated to take place in the coming weeks.