Aldi will launch online store next year

Aldi today announced it will indeed launch an online store. The discount supermarket will start selling via ecommerce next spring, first by wine by the case and followed by non-food products. Also, the company announced record sales of 9.38 billion euros in the UK and Ireland in its last financial year, which is an increase of 31 percent compared to the year before.

Aldi announced the news this morning in a press release where it shared the company’s results of last year. It said the new ecommerce website will launch in 2016, selling “our award-winning wines followed by non-food Special Buys later in the year”. According to Internet Retailing, deliveries will be made to the customer’s home or can be collected from third-party locations. No word about picking up online orders at Aldi stores, though.

Aldi also reported sales of 9.4 billion euros in the year to December 31, 2014, which is an increase of 31 percent compared to the previous year. But while sales rose drastically, operating profits fell from 369.39 million euros in 2013 to 354.28 million euros last year. According to the discount supermarket this is due to investment in personnel and in cutting prices.

‘Ecommerce is another exciting chapter in story’
“Our launch online is another exciting chapter in our story”, Aldi’s UK and Ireland chief executive Matthew Barnes told FT. “This will enable us to introduce the Aldi brand and some of our best-selling, best-quality and best-value products to thousands more customers across the United Kingdom.” A half year ago we wrote about Aldi and their plans to launch an online store in the UK. But back then it was just rumors, now we know it for sure.

Aldi currently has 598 stores in the United Kingdom, but plans to launch a further 65 new ones later this year.