Aldi is considering moving into online retailing in the UK, and possibly elsewhere, opening up a new front in the discounter’s challenge to the major supermarkets.
Fast growth in internet orders as well as at small local stores has been helping the UK’s “big four” supermarkets – Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons – to offset falls in sales at their large supermarkets.
Online grocery sales are expected to be the fastest growing part of the market in the UK, more than doubling in value between 2014 and 2019 to £17bn, to make up 8% of the market.
But until now the discounters Aldi and Lidl were thought unlikely to begin trading online as their business model is based on keeping things simple and efficient to keep prices for shoppers low.
Aldi has sold alcoholic drinks via the internet in Australia since 2013, but it has yet to try any online service in Europe. In the UK it is understood to be considering various options but it has no timetable for any launch.
A spokesman for Aldi UK said: “It is not an immediate focus for Aldi, which currently has the best performing business model in the grocery sector. However, it is an area we monitor as part of our customer-focused approach.”
The German retailer is considering the UK as a potential launchpad as about 5% of grocery sales are rung up via the internet in this country, well ahead of neighbouring countries.
Lebensmittel Zeitung, a German trade journal, said Aldi South, which runs Aldi’s UK and Irish businesses, might go online in other countries including Germany, while sister company Aldi North was considering a similar move in Spain and Portugal.
All of the big four supermarkets lost market share to Aldi and Lidl in the latest snapshot of the grocery business by data group Kantar Worldpanel. The German chains continued their rapid growth with Aldi’s sales rising by 19.3% over the three months to the end of February, taking its market share to 5%, while Lidl’s sales rose by 13.6% for a 3.5% share.
However, the growth of both chains has slowed over the past year, with Aldi seeing a particularly rapid decline, according to analysts. In February Lidl’s sales rose faster than its bigger rival for the first time since 2011.
