Is Aldi Preparing To Launch Into Online Shopping?

Your weekly online food shop could be about to get cheaper than ever following reports that Aldi is planning an expansion into the growing UK online shopping space.

Sources speaking to German trade journal Lebensmittel Zeitung said that the company, which currently has around 560 stores here, was preparing to launch an ecommerce platform in Britain, despite having said in 2013 that online sales would not be profitable enough.

This would help Aldi further its rapid growth in this country, with the UK’s grocery ecommerce market more advanced than many other countries elsewhere in Europe, already accounting for about 5 percent of sales.

Expanding?

The new enterprise would be launched by Aldi South, the branch of the company which runs the Aldi business in the UK as well as Germany, whilst sister company Aldi North could also take the scheme to Spain and Portugal, Lebensmittel Zeitung’s sources said.

Aldi South has declined to comment on the reports, referring queries about Britain to its unit here. However, it did say that the German holding group was not currently planning any online trade yet.

If Aldi does launch into the ecommerce space, it will come up against some of the technology world’s biggest players, all of whom are attempting to claim part of a fast-growing market which is predicted to be worth £17bn by 2019, according to food and grocery research company IGD.

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