Gumtree CTO on the digital innovations behind the rebrand

Source: CIO

Gumtree Australia’s first female CTO says the company’s biggest customer-driven shake-up in 10 years has triggered major improvements to its website and technology capabilities.

Gumtree has embarked on a rebrand to coincide with its 10-year anniversary this year. The marketplace connects buyers and sellers in the local community, and is visited on average by more than seven million Australians each month via desktop and mobile sites, as well as iPhone and Android apps.

According to recently appointed CTO, Roisin Parkes, a core element of improving the brand offering has been overhauling website functionality to provide both buyers and sellers with a better digital experience.

Parkes came on-board in May as Gumtree’s first female CTO, and took a leading role in the site overhaul.

“All of the changes reflect the level of innovation and development that we’ve been doing behind the scenes,” she said.

Among the list of features in the new-look website are enhanced interface speeds and a simplified processes for buyers and sellers, 24/7 support, and a new payment option. There’s also improved search functionality and speed, including make, model, colour attribute selection in cars; clothing and shoe size attributions; smart category redirects for certain keywords; and a photo attachment capability on My Messages.

“For the buyer side, we’ve made it much easier to find an item,” Parkes continued. “We’ve enhanced the attributes in cars that allows you to find an item based on make and model of a car, for example. And within clothing, you can actually find by size now, which is very handy. And we’ve got some smart category redirects.”

Gumtree has also launched a dedicated jobs app, plus a new option…

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