Sue MitchellSenior reporter
Mar 5, 2021 – 12.00am
When marketer Mitch Catlin lost half his income almost overnight as Australia went into lockdown last March, the former Myer and Swisse executive started posting about small Australian brands on Instagram, mainly to keep his sanity.
“I literally had the tap turned off on six to 12 months’ work, so [the Instagram] page started off as a way to look after my mental health. It gave me something do,” Mr Catlin said.
Buy Aussie Made founder Mitch Catlin, left, with director Catherine Crowley, and marketplace sellers Samantha Moriarty from MyAura and Charlie Hendrie from Brutal Truth. Louis Trerise
“Most of my clients were Australian businesses, [such as Ricky Ponting’s Ponting Wines and Michael Klim’s skincare products], so it was a natural progression,” Mr Catlin said.
The posts quickly started gaining traction with small Australian businesses desperate for new customers as the economy locked down and consumers were keen to buy Australian-made goods.
The bushfires and pandemic triggered a wave of support for Australian-made products and brands – according to Roy Morgan, nine out of 10 Australians prefer to shop Australian-made and owned.
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“There was a massive gap in the market and Australians were looking for something and didn’t have anywhere to go,” said Mr Catlin. “We did some homework and realised there wasn’t an Australian-made version of Amazon.”
Fast-forward 12 months and Mr Catlin’s Instagram posts have morphed into a thriving online marketplace, Buy Aussie Now, which will be officially launched on Friday by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Lower transaction fees
The marketplace sells more than 15,000 products across nine categories including clothing, home and lifestyle, beauty and health, food and beverages, toys and pet care, and brands including Ugg footwear, Brutal Truth men’s skincare, MyAura natural deodorants and Ministry of Chocolate.
Buy Aussie Now’s tick of approval.
More than 1000 Australian businesses have started selling on the marketplace and another 5500 have registered to join the Magento-based site, which had a soft launch on Boxing Day. The number of products is expected to exceed 50,000 in six months.
Sellers pay transaction of fees of 8 per cent of sales and payment processing fees of 3 per cent – slightly below the average marketplace commission of abound 13.5 per cent – and manage their own shopfront and shipping to customers.
According to a report released on Wednesday by e-commerce software company Mirakl, online marketplaces such as those operated by Catch Group, Kogan.com, eBay and Amazon grew 81 per cent year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2020, more than double the rate of overall e-commerce growth.
Within weeks of deciding to turn his Instagram posts into a shoppable online marketplace, Mr Catlin and his partners raised $850,000 from investors including AFR Rich Lister and Jayco c aravans founder Gerry Ryan, former Swisse directors George Livery and Catherine Crowley, who are now Buy Aussie directors, the Roche family, Macquarie Group executive David Roseman, former Swisse managing director Adem Karafili and former Shell executive Drew Fairchild.
Buy Aussie Now is raising an additional $3 million through David Halliday’s Aesir Capital, valuing the start-up at $15 million. The funds will be invested into improving the site, authorising and signing up sellers, marketing and hiring more staff.
“The next iteration will have search engines and cataloguing to make the shopping experience best in class,” Mr Catlin said.
Buy Aussie has also launched a “tick of approval” which can be used at no charge by accredited businesses to help consumers identify businesses and products that are 100 per cent Australian owned or made.
“Having the Federal Treasurer launching the business is an indication of how important supporting Australian-made is to the future of the economy,” Mr Catlin said.
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