Catch Tracking

Catch tracking covers parcels ordered from Catch.com.au, the Australian online marketplace founded in 2006 that ceased trading on 30 April 2025 after its owner, Wesfarmers, wound the business down. Catch never operated its own delivery network, so every Catch parcel moved on a carrier tracking number, most often an Australia Post article ID, and that carrier number is still the only code that returns live scans. To follow a Catch order that shipped before the closure, paste its carrier tracking number into the tracker on this page.

How to Track a Catch Order

A Catch parcel is tracked through the delivering carrier, because the Catch account and app stopped working when the site closed on 30 April 2025. There are three practical methods, listed from fastest to slowest:

1. Use the tracker on this page. Enter the carrier tracking number from your Catch shipping email to pull live scans across Australia Post, StarTrack, Aramex and other couriers in one place.
2. Track on the carrier's own site. If you know which courier carried the parcel, enter the number on that carrier's tracking page, for example the Australia Post tracking tool for an article ID ending in AU.
3. Check your Catch emails. The order confirmation and the later shipping notification hold the order number and the carrier tracking number, which is the only detail still usable now that the My Orders login is gone.

The former in-account method, signing in at catch.com.au and opening My Orders, no longer functions, so a saved tracking number is now essential.

Catch Order Number and Tracking Number

A Catch order has two different reference codes, and only one of them can be tracked. The Catch order number identified the purchase inside Catch's system and was used for billing and customer service, but it returns no carrier scans. The carrier tracking number identifies the physical parcel and is the code that shows where the parcel is.

A Catch order number was a numeric string shown on the confirmation email, for example an order ID such as 100123456. The tracking number followed the format of whichever courier carried the parcel: an Australia Post article ID is typically 13 characters in the shape AB123456789AU, while an independent courier consignment can be a longer numeric string. Because an order containing items from several sellers or warehouses was split into separate parcels, one Catch order could carry more than one tracking number, and a parcel handed between carriers could be relabelled with a new number along the way.

Where to Find a Catch Tracking Number

The carrier tracking number for a Catch order appears in the messages Catch sent at purchase and dispatch. The most reliable sources are:

• The shipping or dispatch notification email, sent once the parcel left the warehouse, which carries the carrier tracking number.
• The order confirmation email, which lists the Catch order number and the items.
• The My Orders section of the Catch account, under Show Order Details, while the site was live (no longer accessible).
• A seller message for marketplace items, where a third-party seller sometimes supplied the number separately.

The Catch order number is not a tracking number and cannot be entered into a carrier tracker. If only the order number survives, the carrier number can no longer be retrieved from Catch, so the shipping email is the key document to locate.

Catch Tracking Number Format

Because Catch used multiple carriers, a buyer could see several different number formats. The table below shows the formats most commonly attached to Catch orders. Only patterns documented by the carriers are listed; a prefix alone does not always guarantee a specific service.

Format / Pattern	Example	What it indicates / where you see it
Catch order number (numeric)	100123456	Identifies the purchase in Catch's system; cannot be tracked with a carrier
2 letters + 9 digits + AU (13 characters)	AB123456789AU	Standard Australia Post domestic article ID, the most common Catch tracking number
Numeral-only string (up to 23 digits)	99710708174601004300	Australia Post barcode-style article ID used on some parcels and labels
StarTrack consignment (alphanumeric)	VR1234567	StarTrack, Australia Post's parcel network, used for larger or express items
Aramex / former Fastway label	2A12345678	Aramex Australia courier, used for some metro and regional deliveries
Sendle reference	SXXXXXXXXX	Sendle, used by some third-party Catch sellers for small parcels

A cross-checked carrier number, not the Catch order ID, is what every tracking tool needs. Where a parcel changed hands between carriers, the relabelled number is the one that returns the most recent scans.

Catch Order Status Guide

Catch order tracking moved through a defined set of stages, from order placement to delivery. The statuses below combine Catch's own order-status bar with the carrier scans that appeared after dispatch.

Status	Description
Order placed	The order was received and payment authorised; no parcel exists yet.
Payment confirmed	Payment cleared and the order moved into the fulfilment queue.
Processing / packing	The item was picked and packed at a Catch warehouse or by a third-party seller.
Dispatched	The parcel left the warehouse and a carrier tracking number was issued.
In transit	The carrier scanned the parcel at a sorting or transit facility.
At delivery facility	The parcel reached the local depot serving the destination postcode.
Out for delivery	The parcel was loaded for delivery and is expected that day.
Delivery attempted	Delivery failed; a card or notice directs the buyer to a collection point or redelivery.
Awaiting collection	The parcel is held at a post office or parcel locker for pickup.
Delivered	The carrier recorded delivery, often with a GPS scan or photo.
Return / refund initiated	A return was lodged or a refund requested while Catch was trading.

Why Catch Order Tracking Is Not Updating or Not Working

A Catch tracking number can stop updating for several reasons, and most have a normal explanation. Each cause below names the stage and a realistic wait threshold.

Label created, awaiting first scan. A tracking number can be generated before the parcel is physically scanned, so a new number may show nothing for 1 to 2 business days until the carrier collects and scans it.

Quiet gap in transit. Between two sorting hubs a parcel can go without an update for a day or two, which is normal and does not mean it is lost; scans resume at the next facility.

Wrong number or using the order ID. Entering the Catch order number instead of the carrier tracking number returns no result, and a single mistyped character breaks the lookup. Confirm the code against the shipping email.

The Catch site has closed. Any tracking link that points back to catch.com.au may no longer load, because the site ceased trading on 30 April 2025. Track the carrier number directly with Australia Post or the delivering courier instead.

Genuinely delayed. If a parcel has shown no movement for more than 5 to 7 business days, raise a query with the delivering carrier using the tracking number, since Catch can no longer investigate on a buyer's behalf.

Which Couriers Delivered Catch Orders?

Catch never ran its own fleet and instead coordinated a panel of Australian carriers, choosing one per parcel by the seller, the item size, and the destination postcode. The backbone was Australia Post and its parcel arm StarTrack, which together carried the bulk of Catch parcels nationwide.

Independent couriers filled in where they were faster or cheaper for a given route. Aramex, the network formerly known in Australia as Fastway, handled many metro and regional deliveries, and Sendle was used by some third-party sellers for smaller parcels. Because the carrier varied, the tracking number format is the quickest way to tell which courier holds a parcel: an article ID ending in AU points to Australia Post, while a numeric consignment usually points to a courier network. This multi-carrier model is similar to how large marketplaces such as Amazon route Australian orders across several delivery partners rather than a single network.

Delivery Times and Shipping Options

Catch quoted standard metropolitan delivery of about 2 to 8 business days, with regional and remote postcodes taking longer. Express delivery reached most metropolitan addresses in roughly 1 to 3 business days where the seller offered it.

Delivery speed depended heavily on where the item shipped from. Stock held in a Catch fulfilment centre moved fastest, while items dispatched by third-party marketplace sellers or sourced from overseas warehouses could take 2 weeks or more before an Australian carrier completed the final leg. Catch ran a paid membership, Club Catch, which gave members free standard delivery on eligible orders and faster handling. After the Wesfarmers acquisition, Catch was also folded into OnePass, Wesfarmers' subscription program shared with Kmart and Target, which extended free-delivery benefits across the group's brands.

How Catch Parcels Were Fulfilled

Catch shipped most of its own-stock orders from a large automated fulfilment centre in Truganina, in Melbourne's west, and that hub determined how quickly a tracking number went live. The site ran an AutoStore system, an aluminium grid holding about 25,000 bins stacked 16 high, with around 70 robots retrieving bins and feeding goods-to-person picking stations, part of a roughly 20 million Australian dollar automation investment that was built to roughly double peak-season capacity.

Orders picked at Truganina were handed to Australia Post, StarTrack or a courier the same or next business day, which is why an own-stock parcel often recorded its first carrier scan within 24 to 48 hours. Marketplace items shipped by third-party sellers left from the seller's own premises instead, so their origin point and first scan varied. Knowing whether an item was Catch-stocked or seller-shipped explains why two parcels from one order can begin tracking on different days and through different carriers.

Returns, Refunds, and Cancellations

While Catch was trading it offered a change-of-mind return window, typically 30 days, on top of the mandatory consumer guarantees for faulty goods required by Australian Consumer Law. Returns were lodged through the Catch account, which generated a return label or instructions, and refunds were issued to the original payment method once the return was processed.

Since the site closed on 30 April 2025, new returns can no longer be lodged through Catch. For a faulty item, the practical route now is to contact the original seller or manufacturer, or to use card or PayPal chargeback rights where the purchase qualifies. Two situations are worth separating:

Tracking shows delivered but the parcel was not received. Check around the property, with neighbours, and for a collection card, then confirm the delivery address. Raise a missing-parcel investigation with the delivering carrier using the tracking number, since Australia Post and most couriers keep a record of the delivery scan and photo.

Returned to sender or undeliverable. A parcel can be sent back when an address is wrong or no one collects it from a depot in time. With Catch closed, recovering or reshipping such a parcel depends on the carrier and the seller, so contacting the carrier first with the tracking number is the fastest step.

Gift cards were a separate issue at closure. Catch initially set gift cards to expire when the site shut, then reversed that decision after public criticism and said it would refund outstanding gift card balances, in line with the Australian Consumer Law rule that most gift cards bought after November 2019 stay valid for at least three years.

Did Catch Ship Internationally?

Catch was an Australian retailer that delivered to Australian addresses, so it did not offer general international shipping to overseas customers. Some products were imported from overseas suppliers and travelled internationally before reaching an Australian carrier, but the customer-facing final leg was always domestic. Buyers located outside Australia could not have a Catch order delivered to a foreign address, which kept Catch tracking almost entirely within the Australian carrier network.

What Is Catch?

Catch was one of Australia's best-known online marketplaces, founded in 2006 by brothers Gabby and Hezi Leibovich as Catch of the Day. The pair, who had earlier run businesses on eBay, pioneered the daily-deal flash-sale model in Australia, inspired by the US site Woot, selling a limited run of one product at a steep discount each day.

Catch was the flagship of the wider Catch Group, which at its peak also ran sibling online stores including Scoopon, GroceryRun, Mumgo, EatNow and BonVoyage, and reported a combined subscriber base of more than 3.5 million members. The group built its scale on high-volume, low-margin deal retailing, at times processing an order roughly every second on its busiest days. That reach is what made Catch attractive to Wesfarmers as a ready-made e-commerce platform.

The business grew from daily deals into a full marketplace, rebranded as Catch.com.au, and added third-party sellers alongside its own stock. In June 2019 the conglomerate Wesfarmers, which also owns Kmart, Target, Bunnings and Officeworks, acquired the Catch Group for 230 million Australian dollars, intending to use it as the e-commerce engine for its retail brands.

"Wesfarmers has decided to wind down the Catch business, with the Catch online marketplace to cease trading on 30 April 2025." (Wesfarmers, Catch update, 2025.)

The acquisition never delivered the returns Wesfarmers expected. Catch accumulated losses of more than 350 million Australian dollars across its final years, squeezed by intense competition from Amazon, Kogan, Temu and Shein. Wesfarmers announced the wind-down in January 2025, the site ceased trading on 30 April 2025, about 190 roles were made redundant, and the Catch fulfilment centres were absorbed into Wesfarmers' Kmart Group. For buyers, the legacy is the carrier tracking numbers on parcels shipped before that date, which remain trackable through the original carriers even though the Catch storefront is gone.