E-commerce Summit: No better time to launch e-commerce venture, says Catch’s Gabby Leibovich

2021 is set to be the best time yet to launch an e-commerce business in Australia, says Catch founder Gabby Leibovich.

The coming year is set to be the best time yet to launch an e-commerce business in Australia, according to Catch Group founder Gabby Leibovich.

The coming year is set to be the best time yet to launch an e-commerce business in Australia, according to Catch Group founder Gabby Leibovich.

“This is the best period ever for e-commerce and 2021 will be the best year ever to launch an e-commerce business or a digital business,” he said, adding that the jump in online sales as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic had significantly increased the value of online retailers over the past six months.

“The world has completely flipped over,” he said.

“When we sold Catch (to Wesfarmers for $230m) 13 months ago, e-commerce businesses were being valued at a multiple of earnings. Now they are being valued at a multiple of revenue or growth rates.

“With the rise of telehealth, fintech, online education and working from home, there are an abundance of problems that need to be solved.”

The founder of ASX-listed online market place for print on demand products, Redbubble, Martin Hosking, said the big jump in online sales as a result of COVID was now beginning to level out.

“We are off the peaks we saw when everyone was shutting down in August,” he said.

But he said online selling would continue to be strong as the economy opened up. “As it comes off the peak, it will end up on a much higher plateau,” he said. “The online retailers’ share of market has gone up and will continue to be high,” he said. “If people have bought online, they will continue to buy online.”

When customers moved to more online buying, he said, they had gone for companies they could trust. This favoured companies such as Redbubble which had been established since 2006.