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Friday, 29 March 2024

Aldi, Lidl eye move into home deliveries

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Aldi, Lidl eye move into home deliveries
Aldi, Lidl eye move into home deliveries

Discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have largely steered clear of home deliveries.

Now the global health crisis has changed consumer habits, and may have forced a rethink.

Julian Satterthwaite reports

Discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl built their success by keeping costs down.

They stock a limited range of goods, mostly under their own labels.

And they’ve largely stayed away from home deliveries and online ordering, due to the high costs of such operations.

Now a big change in consumer habits may be forcing a rethink.

Lockdowns have seen shoppers make fewer trips, and opt for stores that offer a wider range of goods.

Home delivery services have also won over many older customers for the first time.

That’s according to data from research companies Kantar and Nielsen.

In the UK Aldi is now extending trials of home delivery in partnership with Deliveroo.

If that goes well, industry insiders say the service could be rolled out much more quickly than an in-house operation.

In the U.S. Aldi will extend kerbside pickup services to 600 of its 2,000 stores there.

In Poland Lidl has started testing click-and-collect at some branches.

Both the German chains had been gaining market share at breakneck pace, not least in the U.S. But the gains have stalled in the UK, and gone backwards in Germany and France.

For now neither firm will confirm any big shift in strategy, both just saying they continue to develop online services.

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