Ritchie Bros. sold close to 20,000 items through 11 auctions, including a $40 million Great Lakes Regional auction and a $41 million Northeast Regional event. All assets were sold 100 percent online due to COVID-19.

Ritchie Bros. combined more than 4,000 equipment items from its Columbus, OH, and Chicago, IL, auction sites into a Great Lakes auction that attracted over 10,500 bidders from 59 countries. Approximately 91 percent of the items in the auction were sold to U.S. buyers, including 34 percent purchased by buyers from Ohio and Illinois. The remaining 9 percent was sold to international buyers as far away as Australia, India and Korea.

"By pooling together equipment and buyers from multiple sites we have been able to build larger events in 2020, attracting more equipment and more bidders, and delivering better results for our sellers," said Jeff Gillmer, Vice President, Sales, Ritchie Bros. "With these last few auctions, bidder registrations levels were outstanding as buyers look to get the last few items on their 'holiday wish lists' for big projects in 2021. We would like to offer a huge thank you to all our buyers and sellers this year—thank you for putting your trust in Ritchie Bros. to provide certainty in uncertain times."

The company also held a Northeast Regional event with 4,750+ equipment items from North East, MD; North Franklin, CT; and Pittsburgh, PA. The two-day unreserved auction attracted 9,150+ bidders from 60 countries. Approximately 90 percent of the equipment was purchased by U.S. buyers, while international buyers picked up the remaining 10 percent.

"Consignors rely on our ability to drive global demand for their assets because it's paramount to the success of their businesses," added Gillmer. "In 2020 we have gone all online, introduced numerous customer-focused innovations, and taken buyer demand to new levels. Onsite or online, you can count on Ritchie Bros."

With both auctions 100 percent online, traffic to Ritchie Bros. websites was impressive. The Great Lakes webpage received 663,000+ unique pageviews, with 60,000+ additions to customer equipment watchlists, and 16,000+ PriorityBids. The Northeast webpage saw 599,000+ unique pageviews, with 50,000+ watchlist adds, and 13,000+ PriorityBids.