Catch of the Day to open New Zealand site

Online retail website Catch of the Day will expand its operations into New Zealand as of tomorrow, with the company also considering launching headquarters in the country over the next year.

Chief executive Gabby Leibovich says the site, which sells one product per day until sold out, has operated successfully in Australia and hopes to emulate the same results in the new operation.

“New Zealand is four hours away from Melbourne, and Perth is six hours away. There are about four million people there so it’s equal to another state such as New South Wales. I believe this will enable us to grow by 20% very quickly.”

“We’ve been keeping an eye on the New Zealand market, and they definitely like to shop online. It is quite remote, and for that reason I believe New Zealanders aren’t getting the same sort of value we can have in Australia.”

Catch of the Day has achieved good success in Australia. According to analytics firm Hitwise, the site accounted for 1% of all online shopping in Australia, and recorded $32 million in revenue for the 2008-09 financial year.

While Leibovich says the site is up for some competition, he believes Catch of the Day will be able to leverage its existing popularity to gain new followers.

“There is one website which is doing the same thing, and they are in the top 30 websites for New Zealand users. So the challenge is there, but I think we have proven ourselves.”

There are four daily-deals websites operating in New Zealand – 1Day, OffTheBack, DealaDay and FirstIn. However, DealaDay is the only site which operates on a one-product-per-day basis.

Additionally, Leibovich says he may consider opening a local headquarters. “All the logistics are simple enough, it’s all being done from Melbourne. It won’t take any longer for a parcel to get there than it takes for one to get to Perth. We are keeping an eye on moving the whole operation to New Zealand.”

But while Leibovich expects big things from the site, he says the advertising will rely heavily on word-of-mouth from existing users.

“We’re going to advertise in the New Zealand Herald, which is the biggest paper in the market, and on some websites including Scoop. Of course the initial interest will be coming from our members, because a lot of our people know people in New Zealand. Word will spread quickly.”

“I’m definitely hoping for the same success we had here. I don’t see any reason why it won’t work, because people are always chasing a good deal. I guess we’ll talk in six months and see what happened.”