Donal Devir, Düsseldorf Office, Bord Bia – Irish Food Board
Aldi Süd (Aldi’s Southern of its two regions) will commence its nationwide delivery service in the coming weeks. This is according to a recent report in German retail trade publication, Lebensmittelzeitung (LZ). The discounter will soon be delivering selected promotional items across Germany.
Aldi Süd does not currently provide an online shop or delivery service for grocery items. For the first time, the company will deliver goods straight to people’s homes specials on non-food, promotional items. In particular, this will include heavier and larger promotional items. The new offer refers exclusively to products which are not available in stores. They will be known as so-called “Aldi delivers” offers.
To begin its new service Aldi will offer televisions and these items must be ordered and paid for directly in store. The discount chain has created a new website in order to do this: www.aldi-liefert.de.
The new offer will be marketed nationwide. The corresponding items can also be delivered to the sister company Aldi Nord’s sales region. However, the items can only be paid for in an Aldi Süd branch. In this respect the delivery service is largely limited to the southern half of Germany. In-store returns are not possible.
The new service has already been tested in Hofer in Austria and Aldi Suisse in Switzerland. Customers there have already been buying a diverse range of items in this way for a year. For example, this week Hofer is offering a garden house, swimming pool or a children’s swing for the garden.
German discount competitor, Lidl, already offers its customers a comfortable alternative through its online shop. Already the trader is advertising its online offers in the supermarket. For example, if somebody sees a non-food item in the supermarket, they can order it online at a later date, and unlike Aldi, the customer does not need to go to the store directly to order the item.
Online retail shopping and home delivery are a growing trend in the German retail market as traditional retailers start to face competition from the likes of Amazon Fresh. The Rewe supermarket chain (Germany’s 2nd largest) is seen as a leader in the online shopping and home delivery category.