FOR the Gumtree Group, it is a case of all of its Christmases coming at once as the online marketplace sets out to unveil a series of initiatives in the lead-up to the festive season.

Driven by energetic CEO Tommy Logtenberg, the Gumtree Group has been reinventing itself into an holistic online shopping mecca for Australian families in which dealer and private cars for sale are playing a leading role.

This year has seen the company sign off on a number of initiatives to improve the online market experience for Australians and it is getting ready to roll out even more by the end of the year.

These days Gumtree is more than motor vehicles and house and garden classifieds, it now has jobs, dogs and puppies, private and commercial real estate, businesses for sale and electronics and computers. From boats to books and baby wear, the site is setting itself up as the go-to destination for online purchasing. In the background the company has been focusing on moving from being an internationally-spread business under eBay and Adevinta and since 2022 has been localising its systems back into Australia.

The company’s data warehouse was in Shanghai, customer support was in Canada, there was a team in India, treasury was in Barcelona, billing was in Amsterdam and payroll was in Romania. 

Mr Logtenberg told GoAutoNews Premium in an exclusive interview: “We have had to wait a little bit with our plans until all the systems are in order, because you cannot go to market if the systems are not ready yet. So now everything is in order. We control everything. Everything has been bought in-house with fit-for-purpose systems which are proven in Australia. 

“And that was, for me, the biggest milestone, making sure that we are in control again, and then we could go out into the market, showing that we are here, we are improving and everything about what you think of Gumtree is about to change.”

The company most recently announced a listings partnership with Homely, the number three Australian real estate classified website in a strategy that will increase Gumtree real estate listings by 20 times from 11,000 now to 200,000 in the next two months in a move designed to broaden Gumtree’s reach across all digital classifieds.

Tommy Logtenberg

“The reason why I’m so keen to create a number of key verticals is the flywheel effect. People coming to Gumtree Cars or Autotrader for a car also might look for a pet. In pets we’re number one in Australia. Or they might be looking for a job. In jobs we are very strong in what we call the gig economy, in hospitality and also transport and logistics.

“Some people coming to that segment of the site might also want to look for an apartment to buy or rent so you really need to have the volume across those key verticals. 

“We are not going to monetize it (the Homely listings), because for us it’s more about making sure that people can stay longer on the site and find what they need using Gumtree, whether it’s a job, whether it’s a car, whether it’s an RV, or whether it’s an apartment, or whether it’s that kids bike or furniture.   

“So one of our strategies is really leveraging the huge reach of Gumtree Group’s five million unique users, by sending the right verticals to our business.”

“It is all around volume and it is all around driving more traffic and listings. So that’s how it (the Homely listings) will start. So we have a long-term approach where first we want to build a significant position in terms of listings. Once you have the listings, you will also get the traffic.”

Mr Logtenberg said the company was also investing heavily on its editorial resources by growing its base of journalists. 

“Over the past eight months, we hired three extra journalists and, if you then take a look at the performance of our editorial team, I am really proud that in 2023 CarsGuide was the number one editorial site in Australia and we kept that position in the first seven months of 2024 with CarsGuide the number one editorial destination for everything motors, everything automotive.” 

Mr Logtenberg said he believed that the editorial “is one of our unique selling points”. Earlier this year, the content of CarsGuide was made available on Autotrader. Later this year, the editorial content of CarsGuide will also be available on Gumtree Cars. “We have relevant content including the news produced by our staff over the past 20 years. We have a great content library so we want to make that also accessible.” 

In the past four weeks the group has also been rolling out its vehicle inspection service for buyers of cars advertised on the site. Gumtree said the service was started in WA to test the systems which are now going national.

“In the next couple of months, we are doing a full overhaul of the Gumtree website so that the entire look and feel is going to change. That will make it easier to buy an inspection service.  It will also make it easier for private sellers to obtain the instant cash offer product which we launched last year. 

“The instant cash offer has been a huge success giving private sellers another option to sell their car. Based on that success, we decided to follow the same partnership model with the car inspection business.

“Later this year, we will also introduce our payment system. Currently on Gumtree the transaction happens off-site. As of December buyers and sellers can transact via the Gumtree platform.

So they can transact safely with two-factor authentication via the Gumtree app or Gumtree websites, whether it’s for a designer dog, whether it’s a kid’s bike, piece of furniture, or when it’s a car.”

“We also have a huge number of buyers looking for boats, caravans, trucks and motorcycles. In fact caravans are one of the most searched items on Gumtree. This is a big growth area for us that we’re turning our attention to – connecting dealers in these items with our active buyers”.

“Next year, we will introduce shipping. A lot of users already use a shipping service outside the platform, but we will bring it in-house. “So it’s really trying to keep users as long as possible in that ecosystem across the three brands, and whether people are in the market only for reviews of a car or news, or whether they are looking for a job or an apartment or a dealer car, you want to have the users in your ecosystem as long as possible.” 

Mr Logtenberg said that having three motoring platforms, Gumtree Cars, CarsGuide and Autotrader generates “quite a significant reach in Australia”.

“Motors is such a unique and large part of our business so our task is really unlocking the value between the three brands and making sure that we get more out of that audience and making sure that the number one position of CarGuide is to be also used as content for Gumtree Cars and for Autotrader.”

“So we really have a cost-effective platform especially for dealers to sell their cars successfully and it is a strategy for our business to make sure that the three brands work seamlessly together. 

Mr Logtenberg said the subscription model for dealer classified listings has proved to be a much more cost-effective solution for dealers who are, especially in this current market, “really looking at how they can save more on their end and sell their cars successfully at a lower cost”. 

He said the subscription model had proved to be more cost-effective for dealers than paying for each lead. 

“The key pitch of our sales teams is explaining to dealers that selling their cars on Gumtree Cars, CarsGuide and Autotrader will, in the end, save them more money. Hence, their profit on a successful sale is higher because our cost per lead is lower.”

Mr Logtenberg said that the quality of cars for sale through the three sites had increased significantly following an early initiative in which Gumtree removed the option for private sellers to list their car for free. 

“As a result, we saw all of what we call the cheap and the scrap cars move to Facebook marketplace, because once you ask a small fee, people actually take care of the photos they take and the text they add. 

“So we not only saw the quality of the listings improving, but also the price point of cars improving. We deliberately wanted to move away from the scrap cars to more the mid-priced cars because that’s where we play a much stronger role and that’s also what dealers wanted from us.”