The two discount sisters are now starting a joint online shop.
(Photo: dpa)
Dusseldorf For a long time, the two inventors of the discounter had resisted entering into online retail. Both Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord have been relying fully on the stationary branches for their expansion for years.
A particular problem with e-commerce has so far been that the two discounter sisters have divided the federal territory into two halves by the so-called Aldi equator. With an online offer, however, this separation can only be maintained with difficulty.
Now the two discounters have torn this dividing line down without further ado – at least in the online business. Under the name “Aldi online shop” they have merged their previously separate delivery service for mostly bulky promotional items, which previously operated under the name “Aldi delivers”.
“One of our essential basic principles is that we offer an attractive and at the same time selected range,” explains Kai Schmidhuber, Co-Managing Director of Aldi-E-Commerce. “We would now like to pursue this claim more digitally with a uniform range.” The logistics behind the shop have also been optimized so that delivery times are now shorter.
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So far, Aldi has offered a small range of selected promotional items in the online shop that are not available in the store but are sent directly to customers. Usually it is bulky products such as garden furniture, grills, plants and hardware store items, but also electronic items.
Aldi Süd and Aldi Nord are growing together
This range is now apparently to be expanded further and in the future to create themed worlds primarily from the areas of electronics, lifestyle and leisure – adapted to seasonal occasions such as Christmas, Easter or the gardening season. “Thanks to the themed worlds, our customers will in future find articles that are suitable for a specific occasion bundled in one place,” emphasizes Moritz Scheffler, Co-Managing Director of Aldi-E-Commerce.
The closer cooperation between the two Aldi sisters is not only evident in online retail. For some time now, a gradual paradigm shift has been taking place in the Aldi empire. In many areas, from purchasing to marketing to communication, we can see an ever-increasing convergence.
This is particularly evident with own brands. Around two years ago, companies began to largely standardize these. That brings great efficiency gains. So the purchase can be done together. The products can then also be advertised nationwide.
A complete merger is not planned, emphasize the companies again and again in unison – even if there had been several rumors in this direction. But beyond this limit there is still a lot of scope for cooperation in the Aldi Reich.
Joint society for online trading
The joint online shop could be a first step towards significantly closer cooperation in e-commerce and future online sales of groceries as well. In some other countries, discounters are already experimenting in this direction.
The two discounters have set up a joint operating company in Düsseldorf for online collaboration. Each of the two companies has sent a managing director there.
Kai Schmidhuber comes from Aldi Süd. The manager had previously worked for DHL and L’Oréal. Aldi Nord sent Moritz Scheffler to Düsseldorf. He has already gained experience at the consulting firm PwC and at Henkel.
It will now depend on the success of your online shop whether you are allowed to expand this digital experiment – or whether Aldi continues to hope that the future of the discounter will be in the stationary business in the long term.
More: Creeping revolution: why Aldi North and South are moving closer together