Where are the Trade Me buyers?

[SueDonim]

Trade Me's search functionality is utter crap. Its only real purpose seems to be to direct you back into more general search parameters so you may be enticed to impulse buy some piece of shit from their disfunctional international sellers.

We get the very occasional sale through TM (usually fabric sample packs) and then go on to foster ongoing relationships with those buyers outside of TM's money grabbing platform where our direct pricing is lower as a reflection of our buyers then not costing us extortionate success fees, which of course we pass on to our TM customers.

As a buyer I will always attempt to locate a direct connection with TM trade sellers to improve the communications I can have with them, to save them (and occasionally us) success fees and generally as a FU to TM.

TM is a business that has lost its way and its ongoing 'improvements' are misdirected and definitely member focussed. The likes of Facebook, Neighbourly and other more forward thinking and community orientated platforms will continue to threaten TM's viability and will eventually spell their demise.

As a buyer that's pretty much how I work too. Buy something on TM then once I know who the supplier is, deal direct from them on. You are dead right about the search engine. If it's deliberate as you say, it actually has the opposite effect. Just means I don't spend as much time browsing because I'm sick of all the stuff that is irrelevant to what I want. I had always just thought that it was lack of competence on the part of their developers, or meanness in being unwilling to use Google searching across their site.