Easier, faster and safer payments with Ping

Media release

8 March 2017

Trade Me to make payments even easier, faster and safer with Ping

Trade Me has announced the upcoming launch of Ping, a new instant payments product to make buying and selling even easier, faster and safer.

Trade Me’s Head of Commercial Jimmy McGee said Ping was an extremely innovative product that would be rolled out to Trade Me members over the next few months. “Ping is a massive upgrade on how our members pay for items on Trade Me. Not only will they be able to pay by debit and credit cards, as they have for years, but with Ping they’ll be able to make instant bank payments and pay with stored credit too.”

He said Trade Me recognised that swapping bank account details is a pain point for some members and wanted to make trading easier. “With Ping our members will be able to pay directly and instantly from a bank account. This means there’s no waiting around for the payment to clear, and no issues with getting the bank account wrong when making a payment. With Ping, the buyer pays and the seller gets the money in their Ping balance instantly and can send the goods straight away.”

Mr McGee said Ping would also introduce the option of stored credit. “For example, if a member sells a bike on Trade Me, the money paid for the bike will go into that member’s Ping balance. The seller can then choose to withdraw the balance into their bank account, or use it to buy things on Trade Me using Ping.”

Ping transactions would have the added benefit of Trade Me’s recently launched Buyer Protection initiative. This means that if someone buys an eligible item via Ping that is not as described or does not turn up, in most cases they would get a refund. “Ping increases the reach and safety net of Buyer Protection because for the first time we’ll also be able to cover bank payments, as we will be able to see the transaction end-to-end.”

Ping will be enabled for up to 5000 Trade Me members next week and rolled out to all members in the coming months. Once Ping is out to all members, Trade Me’s current payment system, Pay Now, will be retired.

“Pay Now has worked really well for us and our members but it’s limited in what it can do and we believe we can provide something bigger and better to our members,” Mr McGee said. “We think our three newest initiatives: Ping, Buyer Protection and Book a Courier will work together to make our members’ experience much faster, easier and even safer.”

Trade Me members can sign up for early access to Ping here: www.trademe.co.nz/ping.

ENDS

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