By Andy Young
Large Australian online retailer, CatchoftheDay.com.au has added wine to its website and plans to add spirits in the future.
Catch has been running for over 10 years and currently offers a wide variety of products including clothes, electronics and groceries. Simon West, General Manager of Wine at Catch of the Day, told TheShout that the decision to start offering wine came after analysing customer behaviour and searches.
“We always want to give the customer what they want and we spend a lot of time analysing their behaviour when they shop with us,” West said. “We have noticed an increase in the amount of search queries on our sites for wine and alcohol products. It started to become very clear that our customers are searching for a great deal on wine, so we explored the opportunity and it made sense to get back into the category.
“Our customer base is slightly more female than male, mid to late 30’s and we know they enjoy a glass of wine. They may not all be wine experts, but they know what they do and don’t like and they know what they want to pay to get it.”
In terms of why Catch started its liquor service with just wine, West added: “Beer is a tough sell online. It’s super competitive in the bricks and mortar space and we just don’t think that at the moment we can offer our customers the deals they deserve, especially when you consider how bulky the product is and the costs to deliver it. We always want to demonstrate great value so initially we will only offer products where the customer saves some money.
“We will sell predominantly ‘by the case’ although there will be single bottle sales on a selection of product). A case of spirits becomes quite a high priced basket and for most consumers they will not need the quantities a case holds.
“Wine on the other hand offers all of your favourite brands in either a six or 12-pack. We will develop our ‘mix and match’ program where consumers can have the ability to mix cases so that they can select their favourites, buy them by the case and save even more. As the category develops we will certainly look at selling individual bottles.”
West also told TheShout that Catch will be planning to run promotions and offer strong pricing.
“We will always be at a competitive price, and often we will run special promotional events that see us offer further discounts, free shipping, buy one get one free, gift with purchase etc,” said West.
“Catch Club has been a great success. Catch will offer special wine deals to Club Catch members before all of the other customers get access. Club Catch members also receive free delivery on all orders over $50 which makes a case of wine even cheaper.
“Spirits will be the next category. We have been reviewing ways to allow us to sell single bottles and add to an existing shopping cart of grocery items, we just need to make sure we are offering the customer extra value.”