How Did Catch Get All the Market Share in Australia?

In a survey of over 2,000 Americans, 89% of them agreed that they’re more likely to buy from Amazon than any other e-commerce platform.

This statistic alone is enough to make any e-commerce company tuck their tails between their legs and give up trying.

However, Catch.com.au has gotten a stronghold in Australia and is actually the preferred e-commerce platform in this country.

Wondering how they’ve managed to do so?

In this article, we’ll explore how Catch marketplace got all the market share in Australia and more.

Catch.com.au first started off in 2006 as “Catch of the Day.” If you know of the American site Woot.com, then you’re probably familiar with the initial concept of Catch.com.au.

As the name suggests, the “Catch of the Day” website put up a certain product daily. What was so attractive about these daily deals was they’d be very cheaply priced. Catch was able to do this because they’d buy things in bulk to get discounts they could pass onto their customers.

As you can imagine, because the deals were so great and this daily deal site was such a novelty, it became a huge hit in Australia. In the fiscal year of 2017, they reported $306 million in revenue. However, the company’s changed directions since then.

In June 2017, they rebranded themselves to “Catch” and instead of focusing on daily deals, they changed to selling multiple brands and being a more general e-commerce platform.

So how exactly did they make all this happen?

Prior to June 2017 (when they rebranded), Catch had a monopoly on the e-commerce industry since they were the only big-name around. That’s right; despite being such a huge brand name, Amazon didn’t have a presence in Australia before the summer of 2017.

With the introduction of such an e-commerce behemoth, you’d think that Catch would’ve shrivelled up in sales and succumbed to financial death after Amazon arrived on the scene.

But miraculously enough, Catch is still going, stronger than ever. Here’s how they managed to compete with this giant.

As we’ve said above, Catch.com.au used to be “Catch of the Day.” But with Amazon coming in and daily deal sites like Groupon catching on, Catch knew they had to change their business strategy.

Had they clung to their original model of daily deals, Catch may not have seen such success. But because they were flexible and kept an open mind to change, they were able to adapt to changing times and ride out the wave.

You know what they say: there’s strength in numbers. And that other saying: don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Catch took these idioms to heart and that’s what ensured their survival as more and more competition cropped up. For example, they launched Scoopon in 2010 to compete with Groupon and GroceryRun in 2011 to provide an online grocery service for Australians.

Also, Catch acquired MumGo in 2013 to have a better presence in female fashion and bought out the New Zealand fashion brand Pumpkin Patch for $2 million. They revived Pumpkin Patch and in fact, it’s now one of their most sold fashion brands.

As a result of these acquisitions and launches, Catch has managed to have a wide reach across different consumer interests.

One of the main factors to Catch’s success is a strong digital presence. 

Whenever a business goes through a rebrand, there’s the worry that they’ll lose their original traffic once they change names and sites. No matter what stage you’re at in your business, SEO is extremely important, but it’s especially so when rebranding.

Catch excelled in this area, as they properly redirected all their “Catch of the Day” pages to their Catch.com.au page. As a result, they were able to maintain their organic SEO success.

They’ve also optimised their website so brand searches from consumers result in Catch as a top result on search engines. This was a wise choice, as ranking for a more generic keyword like “clothing” is much too competitive.

When businesses do well with organic SEO, they may be tempted to slack on paid SEO. After all, why pay for marketing when you can get it for free?

But the reality is, SEO only works if you complement organic with paid searches. Catch understood this, which is how they stayed strong in the Australian market.

This company puts a good chunk of money into paid advertising, which has worked out well for them. But because they spend a good deal on this doesn’t mean they do so at random.

Catch bids strategically on generic keywords and brand names to avoid competing with high ranking keywords. This also supplements the keywords they use through organic search (they’re more targeted).

When faced with a huge adversary like Amazon, it may seem like a major uphill battle, and you may not want to put in the money and effort to try and outclass them.

But as you can see from Catch marketplace, they were able to do the impossible. In Australia, they managed to remain immensely popular with the public and capture the entire market there.

So be like Catch and see your business flourish just as much as theirs. Consider using digital marketing services to boost your business.

Would you like to be as successful as Catch has been? Then get in touch with us now. We’ll give you a free consultation for our digital services to figure out how to enhance your digital presence.