Tag Archives: Australia

Australian “Catch of the Day” site launches in NZ

The Catch of the Day online shopping operator has been operating in Australia for more than three years, offering “one deal a day, every day”.

Today it arrived in New Zealand. From midday, the CatchOfTheDayNZ site has gone live.

The first deal on offer:

  • Two Hoyts Movie Passes for a combined total of just $9.95 (plus a rather steep “shipping” charge of $4.95 for an envelope and stamp). Good product pricing, good product as well (though not exactly innovative).

Of course, we already had a few daily deal sites of our own (tip of the hat to Sheldon Nesdale of Marketing First blog for doing the heavy lifting):

And, of course, the recently launched Yahoo!Xtra shopping site (with its own daily deal listings, powered by Hubsta):

And then there’s the NZ Herald shopping section, also powered by Hubsta:

In other words, the Australians are entering a pool that’s already substantially over-fished (if you’ll pardon the seriously strained metaphor).

Some background on the Australian operation:
The company sells everything from laptops (2000 Asus netbooks sold in one hour), cosmetics, toys or even tomato planters (20,000 sold last spring).
They operate from Melbourne, with a team of 35.
On average the Australian site sells one item every 18 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Some background on the Australian Catch Of The Day operation:

  • The company sells everything from laptops (2000 Asus netbooks sold in one hour), cosmetics, toys or even tomato planters (20,000 sold last spring).
  • They operate from Melbourne, with a team of 35.
  • On average the Australian site sells one item every 18 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here’s an Australian newsclip to add further perspective.

So how well can the newcomer expect to do?

The new site has been pre-promoted with a reasonable amount of publicity and online advertising, which should serve to lure a few curious eyes — but the critical issue is of course the daily deal.  Consumers will only put in the effort required to keep in touch with what’s happening on Catch of the Day if the products are on offer are sufficiently appealing and at a suitable price point.

The first day’s deal delivered, but that’s only to be expected. It’s what happens in a few weeks and months that will determine the long-term viability of Catch of the Day.