An Australian internet shopping giant hoping to attract Kiwibargain hunters has launched in New Zealand, offering local manufacturers aplatform to clear excess stock within 24 hours.

CatchoftheDay plans to capitalise on New Zealand’s taste forinternet shopping, offering daily bargains on products ranging from tomatoplanters to LCD TV screens.

The website, which last year cleared more than one milliondollars worth of stock in just one hour, is so popular with Australian shoppersthat it now ranks ahead of department stores Myer, Target, and Kmart with itsunique one-deal- per-day business model.

Managing Director of CatchoftheDay.co.nz, Hezi Leibovich,says his online store discounts a single product each day which is released atnoon online to the public. The online department store works on the sameprinciple as those people queuing outside shops for limited release concerttickets, Boxing Day sales or stocktaking clearances, except browsers do theirshopping online.

Each CatchoftheDay offer is only available for 24 hours andsavings can be made on a variety of well-known brands including homeware,cosmetics, toys and consumer electronic products. Leibovich says the company isable to give customers access to product at reduced prices because of theirability to bulk order from a number of partner suppliers.

More than 400 Kiwi manufacturers will also benefit from thelaunch of CatchoftheDay giving them the opportunity to sell large volumes ofstock overnight.

The company plans to open a New Zealand headquarters inAuckland this year, creating 40 new positions ranging from technical support towarehousing and logistics management.