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A former executive at US e-commerce giant Amazon has been appointed as the managing director of Catch.com.
Pete Sauerborn (pictured) will take the reins at Wesfarmers (ASX: WES) owned Catch, bringing with him two decades of experience in technology and retail.
Catch sits underneath Wesfarmers' department store division Kmart Group, which also operates Kmart and Target stores.
Kmart Group managing director Ian Bailey says Sauerborn's experience will enable Catch to continue to grow its presence in the competitive ecommerce space.
"We are really thrilled to have someone as experienced and qualified in e-commerce and online shopping as Pete Sauerborn to lead Catch through its next exciting phase of growth," says Bailey.
During his time at Amazon Sauerborn managed over 4,000 full-time team members in 16 countries across product management, software development, sales, marketing and operations.
Prior to his appointment as VP Sauerborn served as director and general manager of worldwide marketplace where he led the product management and business teams developing software tools and programs used by Amazon marketplace sellers who collectively represent more than 58 per cent of Amazon's consumer business.
Sauerborn has also served as executive vice president and general manager of e-commerce for Teleflora, where he was responsible for ecommerce revenue from the Teleflora.com website, and for the ecommerce website hosting businesses supporting over 11,000 independent flower shop websites.
The new managing director says he is excited to help growth Catch and introduce new ecommerce solutions for Australian customers.
"The Catch team has built an impressive e-commerce business to serve Australian consumers," says Sauerborn.
"The opportunity to help scale the business to the next level by leveraging Kmart Group's physical store infrastructure and great brands is very exciting.
"Being part of a blue-chip company like Wesfarmers, with its track record and strong balance sheet, while having the latitude to lead Catch as Managing Director is very attractive."
Sauerborn says the opportunities for Catch are ripe for the picking, considering Australia's current position in ecommerce uptake.
"Australia is a bit earlier in its adoption of e-commerce when measures as a percentage of total retail sales, and there are different dynamics because of its relatively smaller population and remote geography, which has implications for supply chain, inventory and transportation," says Sauerborn.
Sauerborn will join the Catch team on Monday May 11 and will be based in the Catch head office in Bentleigh, Victoria.
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