Decline in Sales?

Me too, Danny. Seems everyone is feeling the pinch.

We are experiencing the same. We run a business on trademe, 2 years ago we would easily achieve sales of $3K per week. We now have a larger product range compared to 2 years ago. So far this week, its $300. I suspect this isnt entirely related to people tightening their belts and not spending, but also due to an overall decline across trademe, both usability of the site, and shrinking product selection due to increased fees for sellers.

I have noticed this as well my sales have almost dropped by half ...

Massive drop across the board, Trade Me has had its day. 

Trade Me visitor rates are down significantly, how can you sell something if it doesn't even get clicked on? 

TEMU & ALIEXPRESS have taken over, NZ'rs just want cheap stuff with free delivery nowadays.

The reason our post costs have increased so much is because we are effectively paying their delivery costs in NZ. 

Based on our recent selling performance, we are going to close up, the issue now is how to get rid of the stock? I listed a few $40 items with $1 reserve and didn't even get starter bids. 

Time to do something else,  sell up and head somewhere warmer.

Totally agree Ive listed a lot (yes I have paid high listing fees) and will be interested in how many will close with nil views. Ive compared my prices and dont think they are unreasonable and even offer the ability to pick up but think my days on here as a casual seller may be numbered.

In previous 2 weeks, I've had no sales at all! Very unusual. This week have sold 5 books. I think my books are rather cheap compared to the big book sellers, but maybe buyers are put off by buying, due to a NZ book store having problems with their books not arriving from Oz.

Sales are almost non existent, it's not the quality or the prices both are excellent. Thinking the same as Shane after 12 years what to do with all the stock. 

I have also noticed a huge drop in sales from, last year. & its must be due to TM changing their algorithms. I have figures from listings last year same products, same pricing & same competitiors, I find it harder to find my listings on TM so its algorithms 

Why would they do that? Trade Me don’t want to see less sales surely as they won’t get their sold fees from traders

I saw someone mention the site stats 8.5million listings and10.000ish people on site at that time. I just checked and 7.5million listings and similar amount of people online. The good old days of this being an NZ site only are gone. Listings use to show on google all the time now just a few sometimes. Even searching for my own listings online is a mission sometimes due to all the overseas listings taking up so many pages.  I'm sure trade me must have made more money when it was just NZ and the site was a favorite for buyers. Now there mostly sellers and hardly any buyers :(

Trade Me does feel pretty dead nowadays. Websites doing much better in comparison.

When you consider the cost of Trade Me fees, Tradevine subscription, and excess listing fees, it is now cheaper to just run your own site and advertise on Google/Insta.

My sales have died, I have said resently, that TM must have changed Algorithms. but receive no responce. So may be your reasons also for drop in sales

It's really over, after more than 12 successful years Trade Me generates no sales most weeks now. Excellent stock and prices. Really sad. Does anyone have any idea's on where or how to get rid of bulk stock (new) and also (used items)?

I am 'in trade'.  I sold something 2 days ago for $30 and paid $4.33 in fees. I sold something today for $30 and paid $4.99 in fees. How does this happen? thanks

Chey, you could try selling on TM in bulk to get rid of stock, or take to one of the real life auction houses. I buy things on TM in bulk when someone has lost the urge and just wants to move on, likewise, I buy at auction hoses and sell on here and even a few things I buy in bulk on TM with the express purpose of selling on in bulk at auction houses. Most of the auction houses do both new and used items. Some of my best bulk buys over the years and recently, have been on TM.

Jenn, different categories have different fees. Check the fees help page for all the details. Of course if the sale amount you mention does not include shipping, then a different shipping amount for each will affect the fee total too 

Sales are down across the board, and not just trademe. Our real world stores have seen a decline, despite being  the sort of store that should grow in this environment. In 4 years we have seen literal stagnation. But we make sure that we have a mix of options, real world, webstore and trademe. I've never just relied on one source.   

NZ is broke,  people are just not spending. Businesses are closing all over the place, meanwhile the supermarkets are killing it with their price games.

Actually supermarkets re not "Killing It" turnover is down there as well, as it was in 2019. It was only in 2023 that it started to see growth. (We trade in this industry so we see what's happening behind the scenes.) If you want to see massive profits look at coke. That will make your eyes water. 

Hi Gary-NZStocked, you posted something about bidbuy awhile back. Does it list your auction exactly as it is on TradeMe with no changes made to pricing and no fee, just potentially more views? 

Hi Shay - spelt Chey, sorry for late reply but have been overseas so couldn't use TM. Yes, Bidbud is free to use for creating a TM listing and it charges no fees so any fees for Trademe for the listing or success fee etc are charged directly by TM as though you listed directly on TM. Basically it's as though you were on TM but with a different user interface.

This is what has happened, 

I actually googled to find out why my sales are down in Trademe and then came here. Yes I agree with most common idea of commenters here that the days are numbered for most of Trademe sellers. I also had a micro level small auto parts business in Trademe since 2015. It was small but a thriving business until about late last year, particularly bad was last 3 months. There were several weeks that I didn't sell anything which had never happened pre-2023. I believe the real reason lies with very high Trademe, Afterpay and NZ courier fees rather than overseas marketers. Hardly any NZ consumer wants to have the risk of buying non warranty items from overseas buyers if they can buy from Trademe with consumer guarantee act or any other safety nets. But the problem is we cannot bear all the above costs and have to pass some to customers. I have almost reduced my prices by a third in the last two months, but nothing changed. In the end like some have indicated here I will have to close the shop sell the stocks at half or one forth cost and move on :(

Thilak,

I'm currently in the process of doing that right now, with very little success. I have been giving a lot of stock away as gifts to friends, a lot of brand new products have gone straight in the skip. Perfectly good products, just not feasible to keep relisting until relisting fees have gobbled up all the margin. The constantly increasing delivery costs are an issue as well. 

Sorry to hear that, Shane. It is so sad that many Trademe businesses are packing up. True the economy is not doing great but partially the blame should go to Trademe as well because they don't do anything such as advertising in media at all! When you open your phone to read a news item just count how many Temu and other Chinese seller ads appear? May be almost every time! How many Trademe ads appear telling kiwis to buy from a kiwi company? A big ZERO!  When I started in 2005 the TM commission was 2.9% and today it is over 10% with Ping charges!! Where has all that profit gone?? What help are they offering to poor traders who are packing one by one? Another big ZERO!! What finally going to happen is TM also will have to shut down and we will remember the golden goose story once again!!

Hi Thiliak. I don't ever remember the success fee being 2.9% but just looked back on emails and in 2005 I was being charged 5.5% for general items eg screenshot below, and it was the same % in 2004 when I started. 2007 it went up to 6.9% and stayed there for 3 years before moving to 7.9%.

Thanks for that Gary!

I dont know why I am charged 9.9% (see the screenshot) plus ping payments - that is over 10%!!!

It is definitely not 7.9% now!

Cheers

T

If you look through the announcements you can see when fees change and there are a lot more category fee differences these days as shown on the fees help page ranging from 5.9% to 11.9%. Just depends what you are selling and what category you think is most appropriate to list in. Full list of categories and fees here.. https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/article_attachments/8022983782671

Kia ora Thilak, as an in  trade seller or business membership your fees are calculated differently. You mentioned you operate a  micro level small auto parts business on Trade Me, the success fees on Motors parts and accessories is 9.9%. If you think you've been charged incorrect fees, get in touch with the team on live chat or email and someone will have a look for you.

I think it really started going downhill when Trade Me was sold to Apax Partners.

These private equity firms don't care about the long term, just how much a brand can be milked by the shareholders and management before being sold.

Apparently, back in 2022 Trade Me made a loss but that didn't stop millions of dollars in 'compensation' to management. 2023 was barely profitable.

Trade Me should focus on building a site that people want to be on. Instead it's a site with poorly working filters, incorrect 'snapped' categories, no algorithmic product targeting (that you find on sites like Aliexpress), and full of dropshippers who say they are NZ based but ship from overseas, and also full of duplicated listings. The user experience continues downwards when compared to international sites.