​Catchoftheday launches fee-based online shopping club

Shopping app, Catchoftheday, has launched its Club Catch loyalty program, a fee-based, online-only club where members are rewarded for their loyalty with perks like free shipping, priority access to deals and 7-day customer service.

Catchoftheday’s business model is based on bringing premium brands such as Nike, Pandora, Samsung, ASICS, Tiffany’s and Nespresso, at discounted prices to online shoppers. For a price tag of $69 a year, Club Catch offers extras like free delivery, prioritised dispatch, on average and members-only deals and discounts.

CatchoftheDay managing director, Gabby Leibovich, maintains fee-paying members do get what they pay for.

“Club Catch evolved from feedback we received from our customers indicating they would happily pay to be part of a membership-based shopping club in exchange for a number of key benefits, including quick delivery and access to quality brands,” she claimed. “It is a win-win for the business and consumers as we can now reward loyal customers with a range of value enhancing initiatives in exchange for a small annual-membership fee, which effectively pays for itself in the first order.”

Attracting on average 3000 new members every week, Catchoftheday revealed its Club Catch members spend more than four times than non-registered customers.

To date, more than 20,000 members have signed up to Club Catch, with the company predicting strong growth for the loyalty program as a challenger to Costco’s success in this space. Leibovich said CatchoftheDay also boasts 2.7 million non-club members and has enjoyed double-digit revenue growth over the past eight years.

“Australians are traditionally very welcoming of loyalty programs and initiatives, whether point-based like Qantas frequent flyer and Myer One, or fee-based like Costco,” she said. “Australian customers have shown they are ready to adopt programs that give them better value and better service in return for regular business.”

According to Leibovich, the introduction of Club Catch represents an opportunity to further grow market share and distinguish CatchoftheDay from overseas and local competitors.

“Based on our current signup rate, we expect Club Catch to exceed Costco as the number one buying club in the country by member numbers within a year-and-a-half,” Leibovich said. “Our goal is to build Australia’s most exciting, prominent retail group. Central to that is delivering greater choice and value to our members.”

Despite the competitive edge the loyalty program is set to provide CatchoftheDay, Leibovich maintained the business actually tends to ignore competitive aspects and focuses on what customers want.

“We always ask, what would make our customers happier? If a business arrives at a loyalty program as an answer to that question, it will improve their business without a doubt,” she said.

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