By Aimee Chanthadavong
After a successful 12 month trial, CatchOfTheDay’s grocery site, groceryrun.com.au, has been officially launched ready to give the supermarkets a run for their money.
The third e-commerce site to be launched by CatchOfTheDay, groceryrun.com.au is a site that promises average savings of up to 50 per cent on branded grocery, cleaning, health, beauty and pharmaceutical brands, with some products sold up to 80 per cent off recommended retail price.
Speaking to RetailBiz, Gabby Leibovich, CatchOfTheDay co-founder, said GroceryRun open its doors for two days every week – Wednesday and Thursday – and offer the best prices in Australia on around 200 major brand items. A flat $11 shipping fee applies to deliveries anywhere in Australia.
“There are a number of reasons as to why we run it over two days. Number one is because we believe people don’t have the time to spend every single day to do their groceries and keeping that for two days makes it more exciting,” he said.
“Also, we cap the shipping fee at $11 so if they are only buying one item it won’t make sense so giving them the buy between those two days; it forces the consumers to make the most out of that shipping rate.
“The whole daily deal is working for us in terms of time and restricting that. We’re also trying not to upset the supermarkets and suppliers so trying to replicate that field wouldn’t really work for us. So our strength is to keep surprising our audience, be innovative and quick.”
The time limited nature of the deals means shoppers can be confident that only the best prices are on offer, and suppliers are not being burned by continued cut-price tactics.
“We work with our suppliers and offer an unobtrusive and effective way for them to move stock. We buy in very large volumes, pay within 24 hours and turn stock over very quickly. We have very low overheads and pass the savings direct to the shoppers. It’s a winning combination,” Leibovich said.
The most popular items are generally cleaning products and personal health care items – the big ticket items that take a large bite out of the household budget, however small luxury items such as chocolates are also a big seller.
But despite this success Leibovich believes there’s always still room for traditional grocery stores.
“Only 1 per cent of groceries are being sold online and even if you compare it to the UK and US online groceries only make up 4 per cent of the market. So our site will only be a drop in the ocean. But having people like us, will force Australian grocery retailers to sharpen their pencil and the winner from all of this is the consumer,” he said.