I’m also waiting for Trademe to highlight the tools they continue to spout as only being available for professional sellers, to somehow justify the fees in-trade sellers pay. Michelle on here (Trademe staff) is yet to point out a single professional seller tool available to us (that we don’t pay extra for). Sponsored listings is a paid product, my products is available to all including casual sellers, tradevine has a monthly fee, Trademe stores has a monthly fee.
I don’t think it’s casual sellers which are Trademe’s main revenue stream. In-trade sellers being charged 11.9% success fees, plus success fees on shipping, and enjoying none of the historical benefits causal sellers have seen like success fee free weekends, has and will continue to drive in-trade sellers away. These recent changes are either going to make or break Trademe. Unfortunately I think the latter will be true
It’s certainly a very interesting development, a store charging someone an additional fee (in addition to the cost of the item) for the privilege of buying something in their store. It feels a bit like the very surcharge's for digital payments that the government are trying to remove. Personally I think the issue with Trademe isn’t the success fee itself, but it’s the percentage charged. NZers don’t have a huge market to sell to, so Trademe should never be able to justify the level of fees the likes of eBay charge - despite this, I sell on both platforms, and I pay lower fees on eBay. ...
Robster - my understanding is the buyer service fee only applies when purchasing something from a casual seller. If purchasing from an in-trade seller , a buyer pays no additional fees, as these are paid for by the success fees a in-trade seller pays. I’m quite concerned that many of my customers might misunderstand and think that they are also paying a buyer fee when buying from me, because all that differentiates me is a teeny tiny grey bubble which most people pay no attention to which says I’m in-trade.
Considering the changes in totality, I’m not entirely against them. I think it will drive more people to the website. What Trademe need to be clear about is how they are going to police the site. No success fees for casual sellers will absolutely drive behaviour from sellers who should be in-trade, but choose to explore casual listings for the fees they save. My personal experience is it has been nearly impossible to get sellers who are clearly in-trade, to register as ‘in-trade’. I’ve used the community watch option, and there is no enforcement. With this in mind, should I just start l...
Henleyworks - I’ve raised this multiple times, after I was shocked to find out that overseas based sellers have an unlimited listing allowance and no high volume listing fees. Hence they can list hundreds of thousands of listings even if none of them sell. I’ve seen some sellers with 200,000 listings, and less than 100 sales across a 2 year period. I’m yet to comprehend how Trademe can think this benefits the site.
Just list the cash option, put a comment in your listing that buyers wanting to use bank deposit can select the cash option and you'll share your bank details once they select buy now - this achieves exactly what you are needing, being a bank deposit option. Just because you cant list bank deposit as a payment method, doesn't mean you cant offer this to your buyers once they have selected buy now, indicating cash payment.
As an in-trade member, I'm yet to see any of the dedicated tools and support Trademe are supposedly offering professional sellers.. this seems to be the justification as to why in-trade sellers are penalised to the extent that they are. There are options like sponsored listings, or trademe stores, but this isn't a dedicated tool, it's something we pay for. My products isn't a dedicated tool, its available to all including casual members. What are the dedicated tools and support offered?
I guess the question is, “if I add a cash payment option”, how is this any different to offering bank deposit? The purchaser selects the cash option, and I email my bank details for them to make a cash deposit. Once the seller and buyer have each others contact details, there is nothing Trademe can do to prevent bank deposit being offered, leading to the same issues (fraud) Trademe say they are trying to prevent?
Here’s hoping there are positive changes to clearly differentiate who is in trade and who isn’t. The tiny almost impossible to see in trade banner is somewhat pointless. With these changes we need to have clear differentiation.