We’re changing, with you.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve noticed our site has had a bit of an upgrade (and if you haven’t noticed the ‘new look’ Trade Me, never fear, it will be coming your way soon).

Naturally, with a change this big, we expect everyone’s first thought to go something along the lines of…

“Why is Trade Me different!? It wasn’t broken, why fix it!?”

To be fair, that’s a totally reasonable question – one which we’ll try and answer for you here.

Thing is, while Trade Me wasn’t exactly ‘broken’ it doesn’t mean it didn’t need an update.

The ‘old’ site is, and always has been, safe and functional. However, it was built over 20 years ago in a way that’s becoming rapidly outdated behind-the-scenes, and this makes Trade Me slower and clunkier – both for you to use, and for us to keep improving on.

At a really high level, we’ve had to build Trade Me all over again so we can give all Kiwis a useful, fast, and modern web experience.

What does this look like in practice? We’ve considered a number of key things along the way to ensure Trade Me is even more:

• Consistent: we’ll look, feel and (most importantly) work the same way on all devices.
• Simple: new design means larger images, clearer text, and familiar navigation.
• Fast: we’ll share new products and features quicker, speed up the sell process, and fix broken things pronto.
• Visible: it’s easier to find what you’re looking for and your recommendations and search results are improved.
• Clever: we’ll use data smarts to simplify the search and listing process, and keep on improving the site.
• Helpful: stay up-to-date on the stuff that matters to you with notifications.
• Accessible: built with all Kiwis in mind, we’re doing our best to make the site as useful as New Zealand is diverse.