Wheedle.co.nz: experiences, comments

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#692300 27-Sep-2012 15:03

If they can offer a decent rebate structure on shipping for small sellers and other things they might get enough people on selling items.

But really will it take business off trademe? Probably not. Once you have the automated systems in place it is just as easy to push your stock out to 2 online marketplaces as it is to 1, or to 3. Look at all the companies listing on both trademe and sella - same items, same listings etc.

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sleemanj

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#692302 27-Sep-2012 15:03

BraaiGuy: cheaper listings and at the same time includes trademe auctions in their searches can be hugely competitive

Which would violate the ToS for the API. Trademe would simply block them.

"You may not combine Trade Me content with content from other online marketplaces without our express permission."
http://www.trademe.co.nz/help/721/api-terms-and-conditions

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#692315 27-Sep-2012 15:20

So dont combine it, display it seperatly furthur down a page then?

Richard rich.ms

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#692319 27-Sep-2012 15:22

richms: So dont combine it, display it seperatly furthur down a page then?

Same difference. Putting it on another competing site would be 'combining' it no matter where you put it

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mattwnz

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#692530 27-Sep-2012 22:19

ajobbins:
freitasm: Wheedle have just changed their web page from "Under maintenance" to a "launching on 1st October"

Just look at the source for the page and you will see the placeholders for email subscription for notifications, etc - all commented out.

I noticed that earlier - all the commented out code.

What an odd way to do it.

I read that it is being at least partly developed in India. Wonder why they they are doing that, cost?

blair003

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#692547 27-Sep-2012 23:50

I read the article in the herald the other day. I didn't understand what they were doing differently from trademe that was going to make them successful.

What is the big problem with trademe they are trying to fix? All I got was it was marginally more expensive. Is the average joe really that fedup with trademe that they are going to try something new? Maybe this new one is targeting retailers who want an online presence?

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mattwnz

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#692555 28-Sep-2012 00:02

blair003: What is the big problem with trademe they are trying to fix? All I got was it was marginally more expensive. Is the average joe really that fedup with trademe that they are going to try something new? Maybe this new one is targeting retailers who want an online presence?

There is nothing wrong with trademe, apart from there not being any competition for them. But Ebay doesn't really have any competition in other countries either. The reason trademe was successful was because ebay were too slow to get into NZ, and when they did, trademe was already well established. I would however like to see ebay in NZ, as I think they are the only ones who will be a real competitor.

rhy7s

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#692763 28-Sep-2012 09:59

ajobbins:

One of the biggest problems is eBay seem to let you put HTML in your listing description, and people make stupid layouts that are really hard to read and follow. The page uses white space poorly and you end up having to do a lot of scrolling around.

Every time I use eBay I really have to work hard to find something and then validate where it is and if I can get it to Oz and at what cost. It's a very frustrating experience.

The custom layouts are crap on eBay but the sheer quantity coupled with boolean search makes it easier to winnow out what you want. Also, having the shipping visible in the search results makes it easy to disregard items that won't ship, or are too expensive to ship to your country,

crackrdbycracku

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#692765 28-Sep-2012 10:06

Yeah, what the web needs is more competition because monopolies don't work very well and this opens room for new competitors in the market. Look at Facebook and Google as great examples of failing monopolies and the other search engines and social networking sites like Beboo, Google+, Wolfram Alpha and Bing which are threatening to take over and topple the established players ... Ooops.

What I meant to say was that Telecom, yeah the biggest telco in the country, tried this a long time ago with a service called Ferret. It was supposed to be a portal site for online retail and the plan was to grow it into a TradeMe competitor.

Well, if you can remember Ferret you remember how that went. I'm with Laughing Sam on this one.

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#692766 28-Sep-2012 10:06

riahon: I am going to have a look just because Sam Morgan called it a joke. No other reason.

Ya that caught my attention as well.

But all the mocking about the code aside, MF's comments about security and what we've seen of the code so far, really doesn't grow much in the way of confidence.

real.listselltrade.co.nz - Looked at this one yesterday as well. Went to register, looked at the amount of confidential information they seem to feel they need and the fact they didn't even have SSL on the registration form, I wondered if that one's just a scam.

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#692771 28-Sep-2012 10:13

crackrdbycracku: Yeah, what the web needs is more competition because monopolies don't work very well and this opens room for new competitors in the market. Look at Facebook and Google as great examples of failing monopolies and the other search engines and social networking sites like Beboo, Google+, Wolfram Alpha and Bing which are threatening to take over and topple the established players ... Ooops.

What I meant to say was that Telecom, yeah the biggest telco in the country, tried this a long time ago with a service called Ferret. It was supposed to be a portal site for online retail and the plan was to grow it into a TradeMe competitor.

Well, if you can remember Ferret you remember how that went. I'm with Laughing Sam on this one.

I think Ferret is a very different example though. That was a toe in the water by a bunch of telco people and retailers to understand more about the emerging market, technology and business impact.

It was also built at a time when we didn't have the internet platform that we have today.

Just looking back and some of the early snapshots of the trademe platform, it's grown with the delivery platform.

I agree with the suggestion that it's going to take more than $300m to take on a $1.5b dollar business, and come out alive, if they're going to take on the whole business space of TradeMe and do it by trading on the benefit of simply being cheaper.

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#692789 28-Sep-2012 10:28

sleemanj: My normal reaction, as I have written about plenty of times, is to discard the idea of competing with TradeMe as completely and utterly ridiculous.

Plenty of people have come to me wanting to develop "a better trademe" (where better usually = cheaper), each and every one I turn away, because I have no interest in projects that are doomed to a rapid failure, and also, these people are typically dreamers.

The only caveat I have here though is money, that is, the people behind this site have a LOT of it. Which is what it will take to even attempt to make a dent in the Trademe monopoly. Massive amounts of marketing expenditure.

I give it about 1% chance of success. Which is 1 better than the 0% I have given any other attempt.

It's nice to know that I'm not the only one that gets dreamers like this approaching them with big ideas. I also get a lot of people wanting me to remake Amazon or Facebook. Usually when I ask how they are going to pay for this they say they have no money but once the site takes off, maybe a month after launching, they'll be millionaires and will then be able to pay me.

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#692794 28-Sep-2012 10:41

I recon it may be easier than thought for a new player to steal the market. The solution is simple really, it all depends how much money the new player is going to invest.

If they have millions and millions of $$$ behind them it can be simple really. Buy thousands and thousands of items and list them as $1. That along with excelent advertising and forcing buyers to register may work. Kiwis are bargain hunters, and generally if they can save a few bucks they willl.

The key here is a website with plenty of listing, of virtually anything. A new site with hundreds and thousands of bargains may just be all that is needed, even if they run a loss in the first 6 months.

Anybody have any idea how much all stock listed on trademe is worth? Excluding maybe boats, cars property etc ...

gjm

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#692797 28-Sep-2012 10:47

I like the privacy policy from the source code

"We won't share your private information with anyone else. We will use your e-mail address to send you just one letter .... bla-bla-bla"

Hope they didnt pay their lawyer too much for that one :)

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#692802 28-Sep-2012 10:55

sleemanj:
BraaiGuy: cheaper listings and at the same time includes trademe auctions in their searches can be hugely competitive

Which would violate the ToS for the API. Trademe would simply block them.

"You may not combine Trade Me content with content from other online marketplaces without our express permission."
http://www.trademe.co.nz/help/721/api-terms-and-conditions

So get the express permission.

Im sure it will have a price tag attached to it, even if its a ridiculous amount. This new player apparently has $$$$ behind it.

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