Online retail group CatchOfTheDay marked its five year anniversary this week by announcing a doubling of September quarter revenues year-on-year.
CatchOfTheDay, which also operates Scoopon.com.au, and the new online supermarket Groceryrun.com.au, said the September quarter was its strongest on record.
Despite the challenging retail environment, the group says it is on track to deliver revenues for the 2012 financial year topping $250 million – more than double last year’s $120 million.
Co-founder Gabby Leibovich says its results prove its online discounting model is a winning formula for today’s time- and cash-poor consumer.
“Sales growth has been very strong across all businesses. It’s amazing when you think that we are on track to post revenues of $250M, which is more than a quarter of what Target recently reported ($835 million). That’s not bad for an online retailing site started five years ago by two brothers. It just goes to show that often the simple ideas are often the strongest,” said Leibovich.
The e-commerce group says it is seeing a steady increase in new members, with approximately 4000 customers signing up each day. Collectively the group has more than 1.5 million members, with an item being purchased every three seconds 24 hours a day, seven days a week
“Five years ago we set out on a mission: to give Australians of all walks of life a reason to visit our site once per day by offering unbelievable bargains in every possible category. This year we’ve approached that goal faster than any previous year,” said Leibovich.
In June 2011, the group secured $80million in funding for a 40 per cent share of the business from a consortium of investors including James Packer’s CPH, Tiger Global and Andrew Basset from Seek.
Leibovich said the company’s newest site, groceryrun.com.au which launched in September, had delivered an average 20,000 orders a week during its first five weeks of operation, with orders averaging 18 items each.
“We’ve ventured in a big way into new territories such as groceries and travel through Scoopon. We intend to explore a number of new markets in the coming year, especially those where we can be a disruptive force and bring better value to shoppers,” said Leibovich. The first new site to be launched in the new-year is Brandstreet.com.au, which will offer branded fashion apparel and footwear.
The group employs about 300 people across the businesses and in June it opened a second 16,000sqm distribution facility.
