Aldi starts e-book service in Germany

After launching its own music streaming service, Aldi will now also launch an e-book service in Germany. The digital platform will offer one million e-books as well as a new Aldi Medion tablet that’s been optimized for reading e-books.

Aldi is ramping up its digital content strategy. Last year, it launched its first media offer with Aldi Life Musik, a streaming service powered by Napster. And now it will also sell one million e-books and a tablet that’s specifically meant for reading e-books. The service will be launched on 20 October. That date doesn’t look like a coincidence, as the world’s largest event of the publishing industry, the Frankfurt Book Fair, will take place from 19 to 23 October.

According to Horizont, the additional digital service will be useful to Aldi in two ways. First, the company is delivering something that introduces the digitally savvy younger customers to its brand. And secondly, Aldi is building a digital subscriber base, which could prove to be very valuable, should the retailer decide to focus more on its ecommerce business.

Competitors have wider range

The range Aldi has to offer is not likely to interfere with the book market. While Aldo offers one million e-books, Tolino (the platform of German booksellers) offers two million titles. Market leader Amazon even offers 4.5 million digital books, but only 10 percent of it is in the German language.

The tablet Aldi will sell on 20 October is a Medion E6912. This 7 inch tablet costs 129 euros and will also give customers a €10 voucher for Aldi Life eBooks, an Aldi Talk starter set, including a €10 voucher and Aldi Life Musik free for 60 days.