Dusseldorf After long preparations, Aldi Süd starts a first test with a delivery service for fresh groceries in Germany. From the beginning of June, the discounter initially wants to use electric vehicles to deliver the goods directly from a warehouse around the headquarters in Mülheim an der Ruhr.
The blueprint for this test is a web shop for fresh groceries in the USA, as the Handelsblatt reported last year. There, the discounter works with start-ups like Instacart. Based on the software from the technology company Spryker, which has been tested in the USA, Aldi has now developed a platform with which the company can conduct online trade in all of its international markets.
The test in Germany should initially be “local and limited in time”, as a spokeswoman explained. And in order to be able to take part in the test, customers must meet very specific requirements.
Because at the start only a selected group of Aldi Süd employees may use the new delivery platform “Mein Aldi”. The participants in the test can select the goods they want from a range of around 1,300 products on the website or via the app. A test in the “Click & Collect” area is also planned, it says – a service where customers pick up the ordered goods themselves.
The offensive is a turning point for the company. On the one hand because the discounter has so far avoided online trading in fresh food in Germany, on the other hand because the business is considered risky.
Because with the online trade of fresh food, no provider in Germany has made money so far. Aldi’s competitor Lidl, for example, has not even had any plans for this so far. Unlike Aldi, however, Lidl generates more than one billion euros a year with other e-commerce products.
Aldi Süd emphasizes that “at the current time” no nationwide implementation of the new service is planned. One of the reasons for this is that in times of absolute price sensitivity, delivery fees when buying groceries are an understandable hurdle for many people. And according to the company, the fees are apparently necessary in order to be able to offer the goods at the same price as in the store.
Kaufland stopped the delivery service again after a short time
In addition, online food retailing in Germany has so far not been a profitable business model. “This is not least due to the relevant factors such as personnel, raw material, logistics costs and the average size of the shopping basket,” explained the Aldi spokeswoman.
In addition, it is in the nature of test runs that not every project makes it past the test phase. As an example, Aldi Süd cites the test with the start-up Infarm, in which fresh herbs were grown in the branches. Aldi Süd tried this for the first time three years ago, but did not keep it.
Rewe is currently the only major food retailer to offer its own delivery service for fresh groceries. Edeka is involved in the Dutch start-up Picnic, which delivers in North Rhine-Westphalia and has just started in Hamburg.
The Schwarz Group with the Lidl and Kaufland chains has not yet gone beyond tests in this area. Kaufland had already introduced its own delivery service in Berlin in 2017, but discontinued it shortly after it started. Lidl had largely set up the infrastructure for a “Click & Collect” service in Berlin, but canceled this attempt before it even started.
Abroad, the German discounters have fewer inhibitions about experimenting with a delivery service. Kaufland, for example, already cooperates with a wide variety of delivery services, such as Kosic in the Czech Republic, Everli in Poland and Glovo in Romania. Lidl is also doing test runs in some countries, for example in the USA.
Aldi is already testing delivery services in the USA and Switzerland
And Aldi Süd is also testing e-commerce in several foreign markets. In Switzerland, for example, there is a model in which customers are served by a delivery start-up. In Great Britain, the discounter operates a service where customers put together and pay for the goods online, but have to pick them up in the store.
The supermarket chain in the USA is furthest along. The test there seems to be promising. For the first time since the end of last year, the Aldi Group has had a website where you can also shop, said Scott Patton, purchasing manager at Aldi USA.
The company had already offered an online service there, but only on one side of the partner Instacart. This start-up assembles the goods in the respective stores and delivers them to the customers. Aldi has 2,200 stores in 38 states in the United States.
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There are no further details on the current test run in Germany. According to company circles, the development of the platform and the construction of the delivery logistics should cost a high three-digit million amount. Aldi had advertised around 50 jobs just for the further development of the software.
Aldi Süd’s test is definitely bad news for delivery start-ups like Gorillas and Flink. They are already fighting for every customer and for the path to profitability. That would be even more difficult with a competitor like Aldi.
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