Page 9 - Ragtrader Magazine April 2020

WWW.RAGTRADER.COM.AU YOUR SAY APRIL 2020 9 SUCCESS
What a Catch
Catch Group CEO Nati Harpaz discusses life after Wesfarmers’ $230 million acquisition.
IF 2020 IS anything like the last couple of years, we’re in for a very successful one at Catch.com.au.
Since 2017, we’ve seen exponential growth with our active customer base now reaching two million shoppers, and we predict this suc- cess will continue well into 2020 and beyond.
Our biggest opportunity this year lies in growing the brand. The focus will be on mak- ing Catch famous.
We want to continue to position Catch.com.au as a household name; a well- recognised, well-trusted retailer that offers incredible savings for Australians to enjoy. In doing so, we really need to bolster the number of Catch shopper numbers.
Of course, though, it goes without saying that while attracting new customers is impor- tant, retaining our existing customers and reducing churn rates is another main priority throughout the year.
There are also huge opportunities that lie within our membership program, Club Catch. We’re eager to build out the program as our number of loyal customers continues to grow.
In regards to challenges, an area that we are always looking for ways to improve on is meet- ing customer expectations around delivery.
There’s a lot that goes into play behind the scenes to ensure that our customers receive their orders when they expect them, and as the number of regular shoppers grows, so too do the logistics associated with managing the warehouses to ensure timely deliveries.
The project that stands out as the most suc- cessful last year was the Catch integration with Target. To kickstart the partnership, we launched a pop-up in Target, at Westfield Highpoint, Melbourne, just in time for the 2019 holiday season which was received far better than we could ever have hoped.
As part of the integration, we introduced ‘Pick Up at Target’ a click and collect option for Catch.com.au shoppers, which allows them to pick up orders quickly and conve- niently at a Target location.
The project proved to be extremely success- ful with customers really embracing it from day one.
We saw over 1,300 customers elect to have their order sent to a Target store for pick-up
on the first day of operation, over 3,800 used the service on Black Friday and the amount of customers opting in to use the click and collect service has continued to grow. Our customers have certainly embraced it.
A challenge we often face is keeping up with delivery expectations as our customer base continues to grow, while managing logistics and capabilities in the warehouse.
During large industry sale weekends such as Cyber Weekend, Catch experiences higher than usual order volumes.
This presents additional logistical chal- lenges for our warehouse team to ensure orders are being processed as quickly as pos- sible to meet customer expectations.
To ensure we meet service levels our cus- tomers expect, even during busier than usual times, it is vital that our behind deliv- ery centre is a well-oiled machine, so our staff, warehouse automation and shipment processes must be coordinated seamlessly. This is optimised by learning from our busy periods, forecasting, troubleshooting, staff- ing, preparation and communication.
Our number one priority for 2020 is to continue to offer Australians the best shop- ping experience, growing our range of over 2.5 million products and giving them huge savings on the biggest brands.
Although we can’t delve too deep into specifics, we are eager to strengthen
our relationship with Kmart
and Target by introducing
integration opportunities that will greatly benefit Australian shoppers.
Catch Marketplace remains the most suc- cessful and unique strategy employed by Catch. Since its introduction in 2017, the response from both customers and sellers remains extremely positive, with over 2.5 mil-
lion products sold across 1500 sell- ers, to date. ■