In a test run in the Ruhr area, Aldi Süd now also wants to deliver groceries to the front door. However, this is currently not a profitable business model, emphasized the discounter.
The discounter Aldi Süd is trying to be a food supplier. In a test run, Aldi customers in the Ruhr area should be able to order fresh products such as fruit, vegetables, bread, cheese or milk online for the first time. Aldi Süd announced that customers in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Duisburg and Oberhausen could register for the delivery service immediately. The “Handelsblatt” had previously reported on it.
A test with a “Click & Collect” model is also planned in the future, in which customers order the goods online and then pick them up in the store themselves, Aldi Süd added. A nationwide implementation of the “My Aldi” delivery service is not planned at the current time. The test run is local and limited in time.
“Not profitable business model”
So far, the retail giant had only offered non-food items such as household appliances in its German online shop and avoided the complex and difficult business with fresh food.
However, there were experiments with food deliveries at foreign subsidiaries in the USA, Great Britain and Switzerland. In Germany, however, online food trading is “currently not a profitable business model” due to the high costs for personnel and logistics, according to the discounter.
Delivery according to the “milkman principle”
The Aldi-Süd concept is similar to that of the competitor Picnic. This means that the delivery should be based on the milkman principle, in which the delivery vehicles drive fixed routes within a delivery area. This lowers the delivery costs, but for the customer this restricts the free choice of the delivery time.
According to Aldi, the minimum order value for deliveries is 20 euros. Up to a purchase value of 50 euros, a service fee of 4.50 euros is added. Above that, the fee is waived.