In another year of growth and adjustment in the Australian e-commerce industry, Catch.com.au has continued to adapt to new seller and customer expectations. In this post we hear from Damien Mersini, Partnerships Program Lead at Catch, about some major updates from the marketplace that were released this year.
Catch Xmas Widget
As Catch transitioned into the second half of 2021, we began preparations for our peak period and busiest time of the year – Christmas trade.
At Catch, our customers are at the heart of everything we do – and ensuring they receive their gifts in time for Christmas is something we believe is crucial. We want all our Catch customers to be able to enjoy Christmas stress-free, safely knowing that if they shop with us, they will receive their gifts in time for the special day.
To support this, we communicate to our customers via a special Christmas Delivery Widget which communicates whether they will have their parcel delivered to their home in time for Christmas.
To achieve this, each seller will have a personalised cut-off calculated by data points and performance metrics, which will be based on how long it takes for 9 out of 10 of orders placed with each store to be dispatched.
Whilst this allows Catch to maintain its promise to its customers, we want to provide all sellers the opportunity to be rewarded for their ability to dispatch and deliver at a speed that Catch customers expect and appreciate.
This will allow sellers to increase their selling ability closer to the Australia Post cut-off date. Each seller’s personalised cut-off date will be based on their ability to dispatch and deliver.
Rejected Reasons Dashboard & Auto-Approval
At the midway point of 2021, Catch successfully rolled out its new Submitted Product Rejection Report, available in each seller’s Partner Portal Help Centre.
This report was created to give sellers greater visibility over rejected products and the requirements needed to push these products forward in the process.
The report removes the need for sellers to wait to receive or ask for an update from Catch’s Curation Team regarding rejected products. Now, sellers can view rejected products in real-time and make the necessary changes required to get products approved and online faster.
Along with the Submitted Product Rejection Report is Catch’s Rejected Reasons Glossary, also found in the Partner Portal Help Centre. This allows sellers to match the rejection reason code/reason with solutions and suggestions to solve the issue.
More recently, the Curation Team has also added the Auto-Approval feature as part of its offering, to reward sellers who consistently submit high quality product feeds and healthy data. If a seller successfully qualifies for Auto-Approval status, their submitted products will skip the vetting queue and appear live on Catch.com.au within minutes!
These initiatives have noticeably improved the Catch Curation Team’s ability to approve more products in a quicker time. In September 2021, the number of products approved for the month surpassed 1.7M, which was almost double the month before. On average, the team reviews 1.6 SKUs per second each day!
Catch Team Growth
In a year of company-wide growth and record-setting onsite, the team at Catch has grown offsite significantly in 2021. With increased resources and expertise, Catch is now better equipped than ever to take each function of its marketplace team to new levels and take advantage of the huge momentum generated in the pandemic.
Mentioned earlier, the Curation (DPC) Team has increased its head-count to 20, meaning not only will the approvals process become more efficient, but more initiatives such as the Rejected Reasons Dashboard are achievable, helping sellers list their full range to the best of their ability.
Catch’s Onboarding Team is now 20 strong and is divided into specialised teams. When sellers enter the onboarding stage, they will work with a dedicated member of the team who has intimate knowledge of the method they’ve chosen.
The Seller Support Team will have doubled its member count by the end of 2021, meaning more cases will be tended to in quicker time, with a similar specialised approach. Combined with more active response times is more resources and detailed material in each seller’s Partner Portal Help Centre.
By Christmas time 2021, Catch’s Category Manager/Business Development Manager team will have 15 members – that’s a member per major category on the marketplace. Any seller looking to join Catch marketplace will be contacted by a member of the team who will provide expert/ customised advice on the best way to enter each marketplace category and maximise opportunities.
Catch Marketing Update
Building on a strong 2020, the Catch marketing team has undertaken a range of initiatives to further solidify Catch’s reputation as Australia’s favourite place to shop online.
Combined with a further increase in above-the-line marketing including television, radio and outdoor advertising, Catch also sponsored The Block for the second consecutive year.
The Block is the most consistently high-rated show on TV, and provides us with an established high-rating presence throughout the second half of the year, running for 12 weeks from August through to November. Aligning Catch with such a popular and powerful show serves to build trust and credibility, while driving brand awareness approaching our crucial Peak Trade period.
To coincide with the airing of The Block, Catch has executed various ‘Top Block’ promotional events, targeted towards lifestyle categories such as Furniture, Home & Living and Home Gym & Fitness. These events drive traffic to The Block Shop tab via EDM and homepage exposure, as well as some through social media campaigns and influencers. These events largely out-performed overall site events, a strong indication that customers who browse the events have relatively high purchase intent, highlighting a healthy sponsorship synergy.
Thanks largely to these initiatives, Catch has increased its level of Unprompted Awareness amongst Aussie shoppers, meaning Catch is a more common answer than ever for questions such as:
- Thinking about online retailers, please list all the sites you can think of?
- When shown a list of retail brand logos, which ones are you aware of?
Accompanying this increased level of awareness is a greater understanding of Catch’s Category Association. Recent studies have shown that Catch.com.au is notorious for Home & Kitchen, Fashion, Toys & Games and, more recently, Appliance and Electronics products.
Smarter Data – Product Recommendations Sophistication
To improve the Catch customer seller journey, our DNA team has made some key advancements to our ever-evolving Product Recommendations tool.
In early 2021, this feature was added to our product pages and cart pages, and now scrolls on the homepage for any marketplace user.
To complement the increased exposure, the capabilities of this tool have become more robust and customised, meaning more relevant and accurate suggestions are now available for all shoppers.
Using an enhanced algorithm, these recommendations are now based on a range of insights including:
- User browsing data
- Similar demographic purchases and views
- Similar products to previous search and purchase
- Trending product (also within the category)
- Best Selling product
- Event recommendation
- Category/brand recommender
Results have shown a strong increase in engagement rates across site users, and has also increased Average Order Value and cart size dramatically, indicating that Catch customers are more connected than ever.
Not currently a seller on Catch.com.au and want to find out more? Reach out to their expert team today!
