What is Trademe? Trademe Review

Trademe is New Zealand's largest online marketplace, with more than 3.1 million members and 1.4 billion page views per month. It started as a second-hand goods auction market, an early eBay clone, but now, like the new eBay, it also sells new products.

About Trademe

Trademe is an e-commerce platform founded by Sam Morgan in 1999. It was listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange and the Australian Stock Exchange in 2011, raising NZ$2 billion. Trade Me is now the largest e-commerce website in New Zealand, with a very high market position, customer base and credibility. The website has 700,000 visits per day, 250,000 items for sale, 60% of the listings are new, and a transaction is generated every 2.5 seconds; the average customer visit time is 9 minutes, and the page exposure volume reaches 70 million times. Trademe has various merchant categories, similar to China's Taobao, including common clothing, electronic accessories, furniture and daily necessities, etc., and its online car sales, real estate classified information, and online dating business are ranked first in New Zealand.

Trademe is the largest e-commerce platform in New Zealand, accounting for 70% of the total website traffic in New Zealand. In 2018, a survey on New Zealanders' online shopping habits showed that 50% of people shopped on Trade Me, 7% on Amazon, and 5% on Mighty Ape. Most New Zealanders shop online through Trade Me, far more than large e-commerce platforms such as Amazon.

Store opening conditions and matters needing attention

1. You must have relevant information about New Zealand or Australia to register. When filling out the registration form, you can see that the address bar only has New Zealand and Australia.

2. Electronic products are not recommended for cross-border e-commerce merchants. Trademe requires electronic merchants to be certified, but the actual situation is that the certification only recognizes local merchants in New Zealand, that is, only local merchants in New Zealand are allowed to do it. Therefore, Chinese merchants have to check whether the products they sell are qualified to be listed on Trademe.

3. Payments are collected using PayPal and PayNow, and the payment cycle is the first Friday of each month (once a month). Payments are received in New Zealand dollars, so merchants need to check the exchange rate in advance and prepare enough budget to convert it into local currency. Paypal payment methods must also be opened in advance.

4. The Trademe platform does not have overseas warehouses, so you can choose domestic shipping.

5. The Trademe platform stipulates that sellers must upload the order number within 48 hours, the goods must arrive within 10 working days, and after-sales service must be handled within 30 days.

6. The product title description grammar must be accurate, simple, and easy to understand, and cannot exceed 48 characters.

7. Product upload can be done through API or CSV form.

8. The TradeMe platform is limited to buying and selling in New Zealand and Australia. Australian sellers need to have a New Zealand bank account, and the platform prohibits the sale of Australian auto parts and real estate.

Qualifications required for entry

1. Have a business license

2. Have a public account

3. Have experience in cross-border e-commerce industry (need to provide Ebay, Amazon, AliExpress, wish and other store links for review)

*Note: ESG has reached in-depth cooperation with Trademe, providing Chinese sellers with an exclusive channel to enter Trademe.

Hot selling categories

On the Trademe platform, the most popular categories include toys, furniture products, electronic products, especially mobile phones, branded clothing, automobile, motorcycle and boat accessories. Among the toys, Lego toys are very popular in New Zealand. However, there are some points to note that the Trademe platform is limited to buying and selling in New Zealand and Australia. Australian sellers need to have a New Zealand bank account. Some international sellers who meet the platform's requirements are allowed to sell on Tardeme, but the platform prohibits the sale of Australian auto parts and real estate.

Shop opening costs

Compared with Amazon, Trademe only has a market in Australia. Amazon's commission is charged according to a gradient standard, which is different in the United States and Europe, but Trademe's commission is uniform.

According to the information released on the official website, the transaction fee charged by Trademe, which is also the monthly commission, is 7.9% of each seller's monthly income plus logistics costs, with an upper limit of US$149/month.

In addition, there are other platform promotion fees, such as promoting list fee:

Trademe will create different category lists for merchants. If merchants want to promote their own stores in the list, they need to pay corresponding fees. The Gallery in the above picture is different categories, and the super feature is the featured product recommendation.

If merchants choose other promotion methods, such as auction advertising and other activities in the picture below, they will also need to pay.

Trademe has many promotional activities, and each activity or promotion requires merchants to pay a certain fee, which varies. Therefore, in addition to the monthly commission cost, merchants must also consider the cost of participating in activities and auction advertising when entering Trademe.

Settlement process

Trademe is free to join. You only need to fill out a form, and then Trademe will send an email to the email address you filled in to confirm the opening. The specific steps are as follows:

1. Click here to enter the Trademe official website and click the register button:

2. Enter the registration page and fill in relevant information:

3. Click business to register a Trademe business account and fill in the account information:

4. Fill in the store address information:

5. Fill in the emergency contact form:

Then you can click Join Trade Me to officially join the Trademe platform.

Frequently asked questions

Q: What are the platform's requirements for the number of SKUs? Some sellers sell high-quality products, but the number is small. They cannot add too many SKUs. Will this affect the reputation of the store?

A: The quantity requirements for each seller's SKU are different. This will be notified to the seller in writing by Trademe's global investment manager based on the seller's information.

Q: Can I open multiple stores?

A: If the seller has many products of different brands, Trademe allows opening multiple stores.

Q: Does Trademe have a shopping cart?

A: Trademe does not have follow-selling, so there is no buybox, that is, there is no such thing as grabbing the shopping cart for listings. Shopping Cart is the same for every seller. Once the product is uploaded, it can be added to the shopping cart by the buyer.

Q: Which categories of products are more popular among Chinese sellers?

A: Sellers can use relevant search engines to help with product selection. The product selection methods of e-commerce are the same. Sellers can pay attention to some product selection websites. In New Zealand, baby products, toys (especially Lego toys), home furnishings, sports (rugby supplies and team supporter clothing), decorations, etc. are all hot-selling categories.

Q: If there is a refund, how can I get it back? Who will bear the return shipping fee?

A: The seller can do it by himself. First, find the amount to be refunded in the background, and then transfer it to the customer using the bound bank account. If the refund is caused by the buyer, the buyer shall bear the shipping fee. If it is caused by the seller, the seller shall bear the return shipping fee.

Q: If the store is not run well and the reviews are too low, will the store be closed and the funds be frozen?

A: If the reviews are too bad, the store will be closed, but the Trademe platform will not freeze the funds.

Development History

- On March 6, 2006, Australian media company Fairfax acquired Trade Me for NZ$700 million.

-On December 13, 2011, Trade Me went public under the stock code "TME".

-In 2014, acquired Paystation and ViewingTracker.

Awards and Honors

In 2005, Deloitte/Unlimited New Zealand Fast 50 named Trade Me the fastest growing New Zealand technology company of the year.

·Rated as the most influential brand in New Zealand in 2015.