Recently, the well-known cross-border e-commerce platform Catch in Australia announced that it will cease trading and selling products from April 30, 2025. According to a notice on Catch's official website, "Catch.com.au platform will cease trading and selling products from April 30, 2025, and orders will continue to be delivered as usual
As a well-known local e-commerce platform in Australia, it suddenly announced its closure, which surprised many sellers. It is reported that Catch was founded in 2006 and was once one of the Australian online retail giants. After opening third-party seller sales channels, it sells a variety of product categories, has a large number of active users and registered sellers, and is deeply loved by female consumers.
The Managing Director of its parent company Wesfarmers stated that Catch is facing fierce competition from online discount retail giants such as Temu, Shein, and Amazon. The expected annual operating loss for this year is as high as $40 million, and closing the platform is in the best interests of shareholders.
With the closure of the Catch platform, its e-commerce fulfillment center will be transferred to Kmart. The closure is expected to cost 50-60 million US dollars, with approximately 100 positions to be redeployed, but there are still 190 job losses.
Many sellers have also received notifications of its closure. Catch stated that following today's company announcement, Catch.com.au will be closing its business. Therefore, after January 31, 2025, the Catch platform will no longer support new product information, new buyer orders, or transactions.
The key point that sellers need to pay attention to is that the last day for Catch.com.au sales is Friday, January 31, 2025. From now until January 31, we will work together to gradually slow down new sales and links. Existing transactions and fulfillment should continue to be processed according to normal procedures, and ensure that pending buyer order deliveries meet seller fulfillment standards (SLA). After January 31, 2025, new sales or listings of goods will no longer be supported, and customers will not be able to see relevant information.
Although Catch has fallen, there is still enormous potential in the Australian e-commerce market.
According to the "2024 Australian Consumer Online Shopping Trends Report" released by Pattern, 93% of Australians have shopped on e-commerce platforms in 2023, and 94% of Australians plan to shop from platforms such as Amazon, Temu, and eBay in the coming year. This indicates that the popularity of e-commerce platforms is increasing in Australia.