👉 Background: Catch launched back in 2006 as Catch of the Day - a daily deals site with one deal every day. By 2010, Catch grew to become Australia’s most visited online shopping site. In 2020, the Catch founders sold the business to Wesfarmers for $230 million. Shortly after the acquisition, COVID hit and Catch’s sales jumped by nearly 70%.

👉 What happened: As life returned to normal post-COVID, so did shoppers….and Catch’s sales slowed down. In fact, in the past financial year, Catch’s profitability got hit harder than a clearance rack on Boxing Day - it lost $96 million. So now, Wesfarmers has announced that it will close down Catch to stem the bleeding.

👉 What else: The main issue? Catch has struggled to compete with low-cost retailers Temu, Shein as well as the growth of Amazon. Its biggest challenge is that Catch has lost its unique value proposition under Wesfarmers.

What's the key learning?

💡A unique value proposition, or UVP, is the way a particular product or service positions itself to be different and superior to its competitors. A UVP gives customers a reason to choose your business over competitors. But when you lose your UVP, you risk losing your spot in the market altogether.

💡Catch thrived by focusing on daily deals and big discounts, but after its acquisition, Wesfarmers shifted Catch into a broad e-commerce retailer, which diluted its uniqueness. Without its differentiator, Catch found itself competing on price against ultra-low-cost online retailer platforms like Temu and Shein. And competing with Amazon on shipping.

💡It didn't have its UVP anymore - so it’s no surprise that Catch’s revenue dropped from $364 million in 2020 to $227 million in 2024. And now it’s all over red rover.