What Does a Competitor Site Need To Seriously Take on Trademe?

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1508 posts

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#1472086 15-Jan-2016 16:50

Probably need to exploit parts of what trademe do and just outperform them in one area. I could easily see someone coming up with a better house sales platform or car sales platform etc than trademe. If it was better, smarter, more focused and provided more than just a billboard for listing things, it could probably take a fair bit of traffic away from trademe.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

bluedisk

226 posts

Master Geek

#1472089 15-Jan-2016 16:52

Trouble with taking on Trade Me is that its a classic "winner take all" style of business. People selling will want the most number of hits, people buying go to where there is the biggest selection. Its almost impossible to take it on once established.
The only hope is for people en masse to get fed up with higher TM charges and stop trading with them, then the door would be slightly ajar for an incumbent with deep pockets and patience to ride it out with cheaper fees.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing at all...

Batman

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#1472098 15-Jan-2016 17:06

TO succeed in business, you need right product, right place, right time.

When TM raised fees astronomically, this creates the right time.

Someone with the right product in the right place will succeed.

geocom

594 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#1472102 15-Jan-2016 17:18

It needs to be different. You cannot take on TradeMe by being exactly like TradeMe.

The issue is that TradeMe has a large user base. So sellers will continue to go there as they are more likely to get higher bids or even any bids.

So what can you do differently well lower prices is one.
However this is likely to kill you and still not bring in the sellers as even though the price is higher on trademe the eyes are there. Thus the viscous circle(No Sellers = No Buyers, No Buyers = No Sellers) kills you off.

So what does that leave. Not a lot. You could add features, better layout and listen to customers requests but at the end its a race to the bottom of the barrel with little returns and a lot of risk.

Most of what TradeMe is today is low value items that people just want gone or if they are an established store more expensive than buying on there own site due to the fees.

Geoff E

MikeB4

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#1472105 15-Jan-2016 17:20

joker97: TO succeed in business, you need right product, right place, right time.

When TM raised fees astronomically, this creates the right time.

Someone with the right product in the right place will succeed.

Add to this " you need right product, right place, right time." these.... right skills, available capital, right business plan

Kyanar

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#1473213 17-Jan-2016 15:49

sdavisnz: yea i think we have to look at the big guns like amazon and ebay and could petition them to open up shop in New Zealand.

eBay had a presence in NZ once. They were too late - Trademe already had critical mass and crushed them out of the market.

It's obvious what a competitor needs to take on Trademe: 100% of the shares in TME.

DarthKermit