Your buyers are looking for 2nd hand goods
October 23, 2008
A report out from Hitwise today reveals that UK buyers are increases their searches for 2nd hand goods online. They report searches containing the words “second hand” are up 22% on a year ago. Classified websites traffic is up 47% suggesting consumers are turning to the Internet to beat the credit crunch.
The most popular Internet searches in the 12 weeks up to 11th October are:
1. second hand cars
2. second hand books
3. second hand car prices
4. second hand furniture
5. second hand bikes
Traffic to Freecycle, the website where people can pass on their unwanted goods to others increased 35% in the last year. Gumtree is by far and away the most popular classified site in the UK with a 14.32% share of the market, it’s nearest comptitors are Vivastreet (5.66%) and Ad Trader (4.18%). 9th most popular classified site in the UK is Edinburgh Gumtree (2.53%) which is incredible as it’s just a part of the Gumtree site.
If classified ad sites (and especially the UK’s most popular - Gumtree) are not a part of your sales strategy it’s time they were. Tests have shown eBay sellers can achieve sales on classified sites, and often there are no fees to pay. If that’s where your buyers are you should be listing on classified sites too, regardless if your goods are second hand or new.
Windows shut down Gumtree competitior
June 7, 2008
After just two years Microsoft have called it a day with Windows Live Expo, with a popup on the site stating “Windows Live Expo will discontinue service on 31 July 2008″.
Already some site features such as opening an account, posting new listings or adding features to listings are already disabled.
Expo was Microsoft’s answer to the classified directory market, but with an emphasis on creating a community. To be honest I don’t know anyone that’s used the site on a regular basis, it’s not one that I’ve paid a great deal of attention. In the UK Gumtree, local paper classified ads or Autotrader for motors are the best options for sellers wanting to generate extra income and awareness of their products.
Although new listings can’t be created all current listings will remain on expo.live.com until they expire and the pop up to logged in users says “We thank you for your patronage and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
eBay promote free Gumtree listings
June 6, 2008
Browsing the computing category today I was amazed to find (albeit hidden away right at the bottom of the page) an advert saying Find computing items on Gumtree.
Up until now Gumtree has been the black sheep of the eBay family. It’s an eBay owned company that no one at eBay ever seems to mention. After all eBay are in the business of paid adverts so a part of the company that gives adverts away for free is a bit of an anomaly. Encouraging eBay buyers and sellers to trade with no cut for the company just doesn’t sit well with the bean counters 
I’ve never seen a Gumtree advert on eBay before, at least not one which encourages buyers to click to make a purchase, but if you see a similar advert in categories you trade in I’d certainly drop a listing or two on Gumtree.
If you’ve not yet tried Gumtree as a seller you should, it works well with free listing, no final value fees and it gives a pretty good return on the time invested too.
Longevity of Gumtree classified ads
March 19, 2008
Back on the 18th February I listed a couple of items on Gumtree as part of an experiment in selling on alternative sites. The experiment was much more successful than I ever thought, Gumtree was really an extra just on the off chance it was worth the time and effort.
My original results showed that Gumtree was a runaway success with no listing fees, no final value fees and normally cash on collection, so no PayPal or banking fees. What I wasn’t expecting is quite how long the Gumtree listings would carry on producing results. Today I’ve had to delete one of my Gumtree listings following yet another enquiry for a printer - I’ve run out of stock so can’t supply.
It’s a month and a day since I posted the Gumtree listings and they’re still producing sales. From a cost/time perspective they’ve actually performed better than previous 30 day eBay Shop Inventory Format listings. It’s important to realise that with a Gumtree listing so long as you have stock the same listing can be sold many times over.
Looking to the future Gumtree will certainly feature in my selling strategy, and once again if you’ve not already tried Gumtree I would strongly recommend throwing up some test listings. After all you’ve nothing to lose bar the couple of minutes it’ll take you to cut and paste an existing eBay listing onto the site.
Selling off-eBay: An experiment
February 28, 2008
I’ve often said eBay has all the buyers, but this week I thought I’d put a couple of alternative venues to the test. I wanted it to be a realistic experiment so I chose two popular sites - eBid and Gumtree. Both met one particular criteria which sellers claim to love - they’re both free to list. Gumtree also has the advantage as a classified ads site of also being free to sell.
First job was to choose which products to list. I purposely chose products which I sell week in week out on eBay and never fail to sell. With the thought in the back of my mind that many sellers claim to make a good income from alternate sites there was a twinge of guilt that I was making the test too easy but starting with top sellers made sense.
I was also conscious that listing on the 18th, the first day of the supposed eBay strike should mean that alternate sites were getting maximum traffic. If ever there was a time to list on these sites it’s when they’re in the media spotlight attracting maximum attention.
So the first listings went up just after 8pm on Monday 18th, one of each on eBay, eBid and Gumtree, starting with a laser printer and a TFT flat screen monitor. At the last minute I decided to lower the price by about 27% on both products for eBid and Gumtree, it seemed a reasonable move as I don’t have previous feedback for sellers to assess me by.
The first sale came in just three hours after listing… but it was on eBay and for the rest of the week eBay sales carried on as normal.
Tuesday saw a couple of TFTs sold on eBay and one on GUMTREE! For a free listing with a sale less than 24 hours later that was a worthwhile exercise. Gumtree kept a steady stream all week selling another TFT and a printer over the weekend. Sadly eBid failed to generate a single sale, in fact it only generated 4 page views on the printer (and two of them were Sue and me) with 19 views on the TFT Screen.
The eBid listings finished on Monday, but Gumtree are still producing sales. I’ve had another email this evening from a buyer wishing to purchase another printer, it appears the adverts have some longevity even without reposting the ad.
So the conclusion from a quick experiment - don’t bother with smaller auction sites where you still have to pay fees, if you want to try an alternative venue try classified ads on Gumtree.
Gumtree for recruitment
February 26, 2008
What do you do when you need extra staff for your online business? Will Wynne of Arena Flowers told TameBay the secret of his recruiting success, when he needs staff he always turns to Gumtree.
Arena Flowers are offering
10% off for TameBay
readers 1st order.
Simply enter ‘TameBay’ into
the discount box when ordering.
Arena Flowers are the first UK florist to sell Fair Flowers, Fair Plants accredited flowers, delivering sustainable, ethically grown flowers. They aim to be the leading online UK florist delivering the highest quality flowers from around the world at excellent prices.
There are times during the year such as Valentines Day and Mother’s Day when demand for flowers increases and that’s when he posts an advert for temps on Gumtree and recruits staff within days.
His tips are to choose a relevant Gumtree category, include a profile of your company, where it’s based and the job description. Each of his Gumtree adverts has resulted in plenty of enquiries and interviews and the cost for placing an advert is just £25.00. Talking of traditional recruitment agencies Will said “All agencies do at end of day is supply a load of CVs and we can get that from Gumtree anyway”.
He notes “You need to be prompt as Gumtree works well, in terms of Customer Services vacancies we always get five or six applications and have always filled the position. Within two days we can get people in and can meet temporary demand during busy periods.”
Will is a committed Gumtree user, in his time running Arena Flowers he’s recruited more than a dozen delivery drivers, customer service staff, packers (both permanent and temporary) and even his SEO web developer. On a personal note he also found his flat to rent on Gumtree.
Gumtree winning the classified ads wars
February 19, 2008
News is out this week that eBay classified ads sites are trouncing the competition. In the US Kijiji has overtaken both Yahoo! Classifieds and Windows Live Expo, and are so far ahead of Google Base and Google Classifieds that they don’t even register on the radar. Craigslist (which eBay owns a stake in) stands out at as the market leader in the US, but Kijiji is now 6th most popular.
Back here in the UK however it’s Gumtree that’s making ground. Gumtree is now the undisputed market leader in the online classified ads business with eight million visitors in January alone. Gumtree is the number one classified site in the UK ahead of both Autotrader and Rightmove (source - Nielsen). Last week Gumtree saw their 20,000,000th listing placed on the site.
What is it about classified ads that’s making these sites so popular? A mix of time, ease of use and convenience appears to be the key. Why wait until next Thursday for the local free ads newspaper to drop through your door when you can be online hunting for the item you need immediately? Whether it be a new job, a house an item you need to buy, or simply a quick way to list that item you need to dispose of, online is instant. More importantly Gumtree is free to use in all categories bar recruitment and property (and in property you only pay if you’re a professional landlord or estate agent). The only other time you’ll pay is if you want to feature your ad to get more exposure on the site.
eBay’s classified ads sites will certainly become more important to the group in the future and over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at Gumtree and what it has to offer. In the meantime if you’re looking for business premises, staff for your eBay business, or simply have an item to dispose of or to procure then take a look at your local Gumtree site and let us know how you get on.
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