Oh Carousell, once a free app made purely for Singaporeans to declutter their rumpled homes has mutated into a massive money sucking machine. As most of you have known by now, Carousell has implemented a new sleek paid feature called bump. This feature which is the first step to monetisation was accompanied with a blocking algorithm.
Does relisting hurt the community?
While Carousell promotes bumps as a mechanism that will bring balance and stability to the Carousell community, its primary objective is probably not that simple. By placing a blocking algorithm along with this tool, re-listings are efficiently managed and erased. Whenever you try to re-list something, you will receive a warning as shown below:
There are no options available for you to modify the details of the listing after receiving this notice. This cursed pop-up can be frustrating for users who want to sell multiple variants of a product. Moreover, this confirms that the blocking algorithm could potentially bar genuine listings from real sellers on top of spammy ones. Imagine losing all that description, meet up details and other elaborate details you keypunched up due to a few lines of code, not pleasant at all right?
When will Carousell fix it?
Unfortunately, these issues that users conceivably face in using the newly updated app is presumably not the top priority in the eyes of the Carousell team. The sole purpose of the blocking algorithm is to reduce all similar listings to the bare minimum which results in heightening the need to bump existing listings. It is utterly terrifying to see a few lines of code being capable of dramatically increasing demand for bumps.
The Worthlessness of Free Bumps
Let’s be honest. Without some form of manipulation, free bumps are worthless and miserable. It is not wise or rational to have a 10% price drop every week just to qualify for a free bump. Depending on the value of the product or service, the price drop might be significant enough to convince a seller to delete and re-list it again at the initial price. In fact, the Carousell team should relook at the conditions required for free bumps. They could consider the possibility of giving out free bumps on a weekly basis without the requirement of price dropping. This way, lesser users will try to game the system too.
At the end of the day, this shiny new update in our homemade trading marketplace is still arguably the greatest feature so far in battling “unregistered spammy businesses” even though its actual purpose was to generate revenue and not for the sake of the general community. Let us thank and applaud Carousell for their effort nevertheless.
2 More Carousell Bumps Hacks and Exploits
Fortunately, new updates are always filled with specks of imperfection. Since you have already made past that chunk of text, take a look at our list of uncovered tricks and tips about bumps listed below. If you are the kind who do not like the idea of exploiting the loopholes in the system, you may have a look at our first study about bumps instead here.
Paraphrasing
As of today, the blocking algorithm is still primitive and incapable of detecting paraphrasing of your listings. Go ahead and jumble up the keywords in your title and your listing will still be eligible for submission. The cover image, description, and meet up details are irrelevant in concluding whether a listing is a repeat. Here is an example of how we managed to post five listings of two distinct variants of the same product:
Fake Unrelated Listings
Another exploit you can use to relist items on Carousell is to list an entirely non-related listing. This process is called cloning. Follow the steps below on how to execute this effortlessly. The leather sofa will be employed as our hypothetical listing:
1. List the first leather sofa as how you would do it normally.
2. List another listing that is unrelated to the leather sofa. You are highly advised to post a Likes for Likes (L4L) in the community section. L4L listings allow you to kill two birds with one stone as it can get you free likes on your first leather sofa listing to boost its popularity as well. Be sure to return the favour by liking back.
3. Choose when to clone i.e. change the title, description, category, etc. The blocking algorithm is unable to detect and block the clone listing from appearing identical to your first leather sofa listing. Once you have finish cloning, the clone will promptly appear in search results. We recommend cloning right after getting only a handful of likes from L4L. Doing this will ensure that the timestamp of the clone is still “early enough” for it to be effective.
This guide is part 6 of our complete analysis on Carousell. Read all our guides listed below to improve your buying and selling capabilities!
Tricks:
• Part 1: Ethical Tips and Tricks
• Part 2: Dirty Hacks and what to watch out for
Reads and Secrets:
• Part 3: Are you suited for Carousell?
• Part 4: Secrets revealed, where to get cheap goods to sell
Bump Feature
• Part 5: Utilising the Bump feature!
• Part 6: Carousell Nightmare: Hacks and Truths About Bumps – You are reading this now
Guide for Buyers: