Gumtree.com.au is listening, and acting!

[gumsyd]

Hello Gummies!

Last month, we asked our Gumtree Community what you liked about the site, and what suggestions you had to make it better. You told us, we listened and now we want to share with you a little about what we've got planned to make Gumtree Australia's favourite online classifieds destination!

Some of the things you told us you really liked about Gumtree included:

• It is super quick and easy to list an ad
• It is FREE!
• The great bargains on offer
• The wide range of listings... from couches to community classes, cars to confessions, rentals to removalists, nannies to nurses, and fitness instructors to flats to share!
• The speed with which you can find an item, connect with a local user, and pick it up - usually all in the same day!
• You love that Gumtree has got everything you need to live your life!

You also gave us lots of great feedback and suggestions on what we could do to make Gumtree better. Listed below are some of the suggestions that were most commonly mentioned, plus a little about what we have already done or plan to do:

• Fix Categorisation. In some categories (e.g. Jobs), there are ads from employers offering jobs (Offering), and ads from individuals wanting work (Wanted). We're going to introduce a change to the post an ad form and an ad filter which allows you to see only Offering or Wanted ads. We think this will make it easier for you to find what you're looking for

• Distance search. You wanted us to make it easier to find ads that were nearby, so we're going to introduce a Location Search feature which will allow you to filter your ads to (say) 5kms of your suburb

• Launch a Pets category. With nearly half of Gumtree users owning a pet, we have recently launched a Pets category of its own. We will also be introducing a new way to view Pet listings - we think our pet-lovers will be purring with delight about it!

• Make search and browse easier. To make it easier to find what you're looking for, we will soon be introducing some category specific filters. For example, in Cars for --- you'll be able to filter search results by Car Manufacturer, and in Rentals we'll introduce a way to look for (say) 3 bedroom apartments

• You told us that there were way too many unsavoury and offensive ads on the site. We agree. Most of these ads are in the Friends / Dating category, so we're going to close down this category very shortly. Instead, we're going to provide our users with a new way to find like minded people. We think the Gumtree singles community is going to love it!

• Make it easier to report questionable ads. As with any free website, from time to time some ads appear on the site that may seem inappropriate. You've asked for an easier way to help identify and report these ads to us. We are updating the way you contact us to report these types of ads and with your help we can make Gumtree even safer and tidier

• Increase our messaging about trading safely. We have been disappointed to hear that some users have been ripped off after sending money via Western Union, bank transfer or some other payment method without first inspecting the item or rental. When using Gumtree, always meet face-to-face to see the item or rental, never ever send or wire money and use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

• You want a calendar of Events. You got it! We have just launched a new Events category that allows you to advertise upcoming events in your locality. We think it'll help you to be more up-to-date about events going on in your community. Be sure to book in some time to check it out!

• Many of our users are from Darwin or the Gold Coast, and they've asked for their own city-based Gumtree site. As you've probably noticed, we've already given them what they've been asking for and have launched Darwin http://darwin.gumtree.com.au and Gold Coast http://goldcoast.gumtree.com.au local sites. They're only small now, but we believe they're going to grow quickly!

• Nearly a third of you told us that you enjoyed Yoga, so we're going to hold our second Gumtree Community Yoga Event. It will be held on Bondi Beach in Sydney, early on Thursday morning, 9th April 2009 (the day before the Easter Break). We'll have free yoga mats for the first 300 registrants. Click here http://info.gumtree.com.au/Yoga_2009.html for more details of the event and how to register.

• There are lots of other great things that you've suggested which we plan to implement. They're not listed here as they'd go on for pages, but we'll get to them.

In addition to the great feedback you gave us, you also told us some interesting things about yourself. For example, about 48% of you have a pet, and the most popular pet names are Jack, Henry, Kitty, Molly and Lucky. Of those of you that were interested in job ads, 28% of you had previously found a job through Gumtree. We asked our Motors users who they'd like to help them if they had a flat tire. 21% said Megan Gale and 18% said Kevin Rudd! Perhaps not surprisingly, only 5% said The Wiggles (which would be handy if you had a car full of kids!).

Getting ideas about where we must focus our attention was a key reason for the survey, and we thank you for your suggestions. It also gave us the opportunity to get to know you, our community, a little better. We hope this email lets you know that we're listening to what you've told us, and we're trying hard to make Gumtree the best online classifieds destination in Australia.

Best regards

from the gumtree team

Edit: The survey was advertised via links on our home page and the search & browse pages over 9 days in January 2009. Thank you to everyone that participated. We hope to undertake additional surveys in the future, so please keep an eye out for them. Best regards from the gumtree team.