Latest / Best of Business / Lisa Stewart: Trade Me Head of Marketplace on the company scrapping bank transfers and dropping success fees

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Lisa Stewart: Trade Me Head of Marketplace on the company scrapping bank transfers and dropping success fees · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Trade Meek has made a major change to the marketplace
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  Speaker 2: section of its website. Casual Sellers will no longer have
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: to pay an eight percent success fee when they sell something.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Buyers are going to have to pay a service fee
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  Speaker 2: when they buy something for twenty bucks or more, but
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  Speaker 2: that fee caps out at five bucks. Lisa Stewart is
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  Speaker 2: the head of Marketplace for trade me Hi, Lisa, Hi, Heather,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Are you doing this because the fees that you were
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  Speaker 2: charging were putting people off?
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  Speaker 3: We are doing this in response to customer FEEDB. We're
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  Speaker 3: constantly listening to what our customers are telling us, and
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  Speaker 3: we hear two things. The first is they really value
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  Speaker 3: the trust and protection that we provide, but that fees
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  Speaker 3: were becoming a bigger hurdle to selling, and so we're
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  Speaker 3: looking to respond to both of those with the changes.
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  Speaker 2: For announcing today, how much were people ending up paying
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  Speaker 2: in fees.
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  Speaker 3: Well, let's walk for an example. I've got a stroller
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  Speaker 3: up for sale at the moment, a pram, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: hoping to get about a one hundred dollars for it.
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  Speaker 3: So at the moment, for that one hundred dollars sale,
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  Speaker 3: i'd pay about eight dollars and success fees. With these changes,
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  Speaker 3: that eight dollars will be no more and I could
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  Speaker 3: pay a round about two dollars in ping transaction fees.
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  Speaker 3: So as a seller on that hundred dollar item, I'd
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  Speaker 3: be keeping round about six dollars in my back pocket.
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  Speaker 2: Bit better, because it's not just the success fees, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: It's the it's the fees that you charge for listings
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  Speaker 2: that could be like six bucks. Once you've gone for
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  Speaker 2: a subheading, and you've gone for a you know, a
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  Speaker 2: reserve price and all that kind of stuff, and then
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  Speaker 2: you've got then you've got the ping fees as well,
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  Speaker 2: So it could it could end up being what like
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  Speaker 2: maybe as much as sixteen dollars that you're paying for
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  Speaker 2: one hundred dollars.
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  Speaker 3: Prem depends on the choices that you make. So when
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  Speaker 3: you list on trade me, the success fee has has
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  Speaker 3: been the mandatory bits. Everyone will pay a success fee.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, all those other add ons are your choice entirely,
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  Speaker 3: and so if you don't want to pay any of
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  Speaker 3: those extrass the moment you don't have.
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  Speaker 2: To, Okay, but you're keeping them, are you? As they are?
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  Speaker 3: We are keeping them as choices yet.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, so it's lower, but it is still more
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  Speaker 2: expensive than Facebook Marketplace, which means that it is still
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  Speaker 2: maybe too high, don't you think.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Facebook, as you say, is free, but it doesn't
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  Speaker 3: offer any of the safety or protection that we offer.
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  Speaker 3: We've got Ping is a really safe and secure way
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  Speaker 3: to pay, and when you pay with Ping, we cover
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  Speaker 3: you with buyo protection. So we're putting that protection up
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  Speaker 3: with these changes as well, up to five thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 3: You don't get any of that on Facebook. We do
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  Speaker 3: need to keep the platform operating though, with these changes,
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  Speaker 3: and that's what the service fee for buyers is going
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  Speaker 3: to cover. It enables us to keep the platform operating
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  Speaker 3: and to offer New Zealand based support.
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  Speaker 2: So why are you getting rid of the bank transfers?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the sad fact is that whilst rare, nearly all
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  Speaker 3: unresolved scams on trade me involve bank transfer, and once
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  Speaker 3: somebody's transferred money into another bank account, that money is
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  Speaker 3: often gone forget. We don't have any visibility over any
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  Speaker 3: of those payments, and so if something does go wrong.
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  Speaker 3: It makes it really hard for us to step in
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  Speaker 3: and help. So we're getting rid of bank transfers to
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  Speaker 3: make the site safer for buying and selling.
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  Speaker 2: But this doesn't I mean, this doesn't prevent let's say
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  Speaker 2: I'm the one selling the prem. It doesn't prevent from me,
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  Speaker 2: the seller of the PRAM, and the buyer of the
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  Speaker 2: prem from privately organizing our own bank transfer.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Well, bank transfers will now be against our policies, and
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  Speaker 3: we've got teams of folks who scan the site to
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  Speaker 3: check that nothing dodgy is going on. If they catch
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  Speaker 3: that that kind of behavior is happening, then we'd look
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  Speaker 3: to educate our customers on why our policies are what
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  Speaker 3: they are.
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  Speaker 2: Isn't this, I mean, Lisa, isn't this you just funneling
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  Speaker 2: finding another way to make money, because then you're funneling
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  Speaker 2: everybody through pen which you own, and you can clip
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  Speaker 2: the ticket with two pers.
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  Speaker 3: The ping fee isn't changing as a result of these changes.
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  Speaker 3: We've had ping on our site for a number of years,
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  Speaker 3: and the transaction fee of two point one nine percent
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  Speaker 3: isn't changing as a result.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it is. I'm not saying it is.
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  Speaker 2: What I am saying is, as somebody who recently sold
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  Speaker 2: stuff on trade Me, my preference was to use a
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  Speaker 2: bank transfer because then it was in my account. What
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  Speaker 2: you're now doing is saying I can't do that. I
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  Speaker 2: have to use potentially after pay or ping, which you own.
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  Speaker 2: Therefore you can clip the ticket again by two percent.
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  Speaker 3: We're offering three different payment options after these changes, Yeah, ping,
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  Speaker 3: after pay or cash okay, and so those are the
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  Speaker 3: three options that will be that will be offering, and
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  Speaker 3: we support both ping and after pay with our buyer protection.
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  Speaker 3: So if anything does go wrong and you're using those
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  Speaker 3: payment methods, then we've got your back.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, Lisa, I have to put this to you because
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  Speaker 2: it's an idea that I kind of pitched earlier on,
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  Speaker 2: which is is it possible that the age of trade
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  Speaker 2: meet is over? Because it is how possible to buy
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  Speaker 2: stuff for so much cheaper and yet it'd be reasonably
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  Speaker 2: cool at places like kmart.
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  Speaker 3: Millions of key we come to trade Me every month
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  Speaker 3: to buy and sal and we're pretty proud of the
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  Speaker 3: role that we've played over the last twenty six years
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  Speaker 3: and helping Kiwi to do that. In fact, something is
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  Speaker 3: bought or sold on trade me about every four seconds,
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  Speaker 3: and so this is really about continuing to improve our
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  Speaker 3: experience and make sure we're really well set up for
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  Speaker 3: the next twenty six years.
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  Speaker 2: Lisa has been good to talk to you. Thank you
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  Speaker 2: very much for talking us through it. That's Lisa Stewart,
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  Speaker 2: Trade Me, head of Marketplace.
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