Building a credible competitor to TradeMe

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Forums › Startups › Building a credible competitor to TradeMe

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#698568 9-Oct-2012 16:49

RedJungle: Attempting to 'take on Trademe' is a path to failure.

I agree with oxnsox, if you can focus on a niche and gain momentum then I could see potential for success. You need a following before you can sell yourself into other/general markets.

Even if you get a niche market level of success (and that itself will be hard) transitioning from niche to mass market is a very difficult step. Youll probably piss off all of your existing customers when you do it.

mattwnz

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#698581 9-Oct-2012 17:09

NonprayingMantis:
RedJungle: Attempting to 'take on Trademe' is a path to failure.

I agree with oxnsox, if you can focus on a niche and gain momentum then I could see potential for success. You need a following before you can sell yourself into other/general markets.

Even if you get a niche market level of success (and that itself will be hard)? transitioning from niche to mass market is a very difficult step. Youll probably piss off all of your existing customers when you do it.

The problem is a niche market with a very small population makes it even harder for the numbers to stack up.

Maybe a craigslist type website in NZ could be an idea. They seem to compete well with ebay.

DonGould

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#698615 9-Oct-2012 18:03

1. make it like a game
2. item referral credit
3. higher fees than trademe
4. youth packer network
5. sms credit system
6. android app
7. youth promotion plan
8. item history tracking - serial numbers
9. bar code listing

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Pock

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#698619 9-Oct-2012 18:14

DonGould: 1. make it like a game
2. item referral credit
3. higher fees than trademe
4. youth packer network
5. sms credit system
6. android app
7. youth promotion plan
8. item history tracking - serial numbers
9. bar code listing

10. A s**tload of cash that you are willing to risk.

DonGould

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#698622 9-Oct-2012 18:22

Pock: 10. A s**tload of cash that you are willing to risk.

ya perhaps... don't really see why.

11. local development by a visible team

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

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spacedog

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#698640 9-Oct-2012 18:55

I will grant that TradeMe's back-end seems to work good. Search times are zippy and I've rarely had issues with downtime or reliability.

The front-end is a dog's breakfast and looks like it was designed about 10 years ago and has the usability you would expect from an 8-year old website.

I think TradeMe could be easily taken out by a 'power play' investor/marketing group. The recipe is:

Build a solid back-end transaction platform so the infrastructure is sound. There are lots of big auction sites, this is not a question of building something that has never existed before, so with the right people managing it, it is utterly achievable
Get good marketing folks involve in the UI design. Make it, and the entire user experience, more robust, usable and friendly for the auctioneers as well as the buyers. Again, totally achievable and not exactly a case of inventing something that never existed before
Plan to be a loss leader for the first 3 years while you put money into marketing (advertising, cheaper auction fees or free auctions, etc...)
After you have crushed TradeMe for being asleep at the wheel...move your fee and revenue structures up to TradeMe levels or higher and profit.

Now those 3 things require that you get *real* investors, *real* marketing folks, and *real* IT managers. If you short change your budget on any one of those three things....it will fail. I think Wheedle skimped on their IT managers it would seem. As for the rest of Wheedle.....seems like we will never know?

Mighty Ape

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DonGould

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#698651 9-Oct-2012 19:07

12. Paid list advisors

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jonherries

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#698657 9-Oct-2012 19:29

I would like someone to act as my agent for selling stuff, a shop or something, I am too lazy to list it myself.

Jon

jonherries

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#698658 9-Oct-2012 19:30

Maybe dutch auctions?

Jon

sbiddle

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#698663 9-Oct-2012 19:52

jonherries: Maybe dutch auctions?

Jon

I remermber having this very discussion with somebody at TM a few years ago. They had no idea what a dutch auction was.

Something like that raises lots of opportunities, especially in conjunction with a daily deal type offers. The fact nobody has gone there yet really surprises me.

DonGould

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#698664 9-Oct-2012 19:54

jonherries: I would like someone to act as my agent for selling stuff, a shop or something, I am too lazy to list it myself.

Jon

Per my item 12.

You load your photos and someone else writes it up, sets the reserve/buy now and gets a commission (which a really sensible board would put towards their listing fees).

A better description will get a better price.

Knowing the market price will get a better price.

Knowing the best day to list and how long to list...

Anyone who want's to crack this thing needs to think up ways to get others able to earn some of the gold - same way Kim Dotcom figured out how to reward people for putting content on his site, but get money from a third party (advertisers) to the downloader.

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

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DonGould

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#698666 9-Oct-2012 19:57

jonherries: Maybe dutch auctions?

Jon

How would that work?

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jonherries

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#698690 9-Oct-2012 20:21

DonGould:
jonherries: I would like someone to act as my agent for selling stuff, a shop or something, I am too lazy to list it myself.

Jon

Per my item 12.

You load your photos and someone else writes it up, sets the reserve/buy now and gets a commission (which a really sensible board would put towards their listing fees).

A better description will get a better price.

Knowing the market price will get a better price.

Knowing the best day to list and how long to list...

Anyone who want's to crack this thing needs to think up ways to get others able to earn some of the gold - same way Kim Dotcom figured out how to reward people for putting content on his site, but get money from a third party (advertisers) to the downloader.

Yip, I would love to drop some stuff off somewhere for this.

Re: a dutch auction, people watch something start at the wishful price and over time the price reduces by a dollar per hour or day or whatever until someone clicks buy now.

Jon

jonherries

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#698693 9-Oct-2012 20:23

Advertising space is another niche which needs to be opened up.

Separate the print/copy from the display or not and have marketing teams bidding on the space you have... For their latest campaign.

Jon

DonGould

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#698695 9-Oct-2012 20:27

jonherries:

Re: a dutch auction, people watch something start at the wishful price and over time the price reduces by a dollar per hour or day or whatever until someone clicks buy now.

Jon

ya I get the concept... it's just how you execute it with the obvious issues... do you let the seller set the ticker rate? What do you do about night time? Should the ticker stop at 11pm and start again at 9am, or should it just tick from 7pm to 11pm? But would this cause auctions to always end late in the day?

Do you allow an auto bid when the ticker hits $x?

Promote New Zealand - Get yourself a .kiwi.nz domain name!!!

Check out mine - i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz - don@i.am.a.can.do.kiwi.nz

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