How to sell faster on Trade Me with ‘Make an offer’

Making the process fast and easy for buyers will result in a fast and easy sale for you. While a detailed description and high quality photos are guaranteed to improve your chances of selling, there’s nothing more enticing than giving buyers the option to submit their own fixed price offer.

Make an offer functions like a Buy Now, but feels like a bid – so it gives buyers the best of both worlds.

Just like clicking ‘Buy Now’ or placing a bid, buyers know that, by making an offer, they’re committing to completing the trade and purchasing the item – if the seller accepts.

This means the offers you do receive will be genuine. When you accept an offer, the buyer will receive all the usual notifications confirming they’ve won your auction. Selling online just got serious... Seriously efficient!

Answering those cheeky questions about a cheaper Buy Now price can be frustrating and more often than not, a waste of time for everyone involved.

‘Make an offer’ essentially automates the Q&A section of your listing. Instead of getting questions about “how low you’ll go,” or answering dozens of casual, non-committal enquiries like "is this available?", you’ll receive real-time offers that you can choose to accept (or decline) in seconds. You can even shoot right back with a counteroffer to give your buyer an indication of what you're willing to accept. Save everyone’s time and enjoy faster, seamless sales!

Unlike a Buy Now (which can’t be changed once bidding starts), you can change your mind about the price you’re happy to accept for the duration of your listing. You might get offers below your dream price… or much higher than you were expecting! Either way – it’ll be completely your choice to accept.

Make sure your starting price and reserve price encourage a lengthy amount of bids or time, because as soon as the reserve has been met, the Make an offer feature will be disabled – you’ll want to receive as many offers as possible before the reserve is met.

When you’re listing an item on Trade Me, it can be hard to know how to price it. If you’re not sure what your item’s worth, this new feature will give you immediate insights! Sure, you might get some lowballs – but you can decline them and the buyer will be notified and given the option to make another offer.

If the offer is so low it’s not even worth your time, this is a good opportunity to send a counteroffer back to the buyer so they know the price range you're willing to accept.

No more awkward price haggling! Just list, walk away and manage offers as they come in with the tap of a button. Because buyers can make an offer as many times as they like (no matter how often they’re declined), they’ll enjoy feeling in control of the negotiations too.

Please note: Make an offer is only available on the app. If you prefer to list on desktop but want to make the most of this epic feature, continue to list your items as usual, then edit and update your listing in the app. Check out this guide for commonly asked questions and more information.