We all have noticed Aldi weekly bargains are very popular However to buy these physically we need to visit the store. What if these are available online with an option of click and collect.
Will this option make the weekly deals more popular and will it boost Aldi sales
We are about to propose to Aldi this idea to go online for the benefit of the consumer and business.
Any thoughts / inputs are welcome.
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Tell me: who are you??
OzBargainer
OzBargainer
took me a second but i got it.
OzBargainer
The new number 2.
He is the sith lord lol
sinishta
If you are going to the store to collect from the Click and Collect, you may as well get the products you want off the shelf while you are there.
Unless they aren't there….which is very often the case unless you can get there the morning of the sale
Exactly.
Q.
What is the difference between Aldi and the Fishing Bait shop next door?
A.
The Fishing Bait shop always has stock.
but you can't buy bread at the fishing bait shop.
Good point ,however popular items are sold out within an hour of shop opening. There are even Q outside the shop before opening to pick up popular products at cheap price.
And you propose to let people queue jump by ordering these online first?
Think again Einstein.
It's a great idea. Embrace technology.
it means they can more accurately guage stock, perhaps even shift it from one store to another where demand is higher.
if the item has already been paid for, what does aldi have to lose?
unless their special items arent sold at enough profit?
@toshin: They dont shift stock around, never have never will. Thats why they can sell for example bikes at 50% off in one store while the store 1km away sold out 5 weeks earlier. The cost in labour time, and shipplng doesnt fit their model. Ok for DJ's Myer etc who have higher margins to cover those costs. Transport costs in Australia are horrendous.
@Shiv86: Einstein would consider cause and effect. The effect Aldi wants apart from sales is to have people go into the stores and buy extra items. The lineup's are to create interest and further demand.
People who miss out this week will line up next time its on offer. Its the Aldi thing, part of the Aldi experience. And if a store sells its store online before opening, that creates even more bad will with those who line up at a store expecting to get a bargain.
As for embracing technology. thats a kids thing, blind embracing of any idea sounds great, works sometimes, and we all see those successes, but like lotto, many more fail and many fail to see the failures.
Aldi are wisely experimenting (rather than embracing) with this technology in the UK
You say it benefits the consumer and the business. How?
You can't just make a claim without elaborating nor substantiating.
The business doesn't stand to benefit in its current form. As mentioned by many others, there are lines outside the store for sale items, creating the illusion that the demand definitely outweighs supply. Without having an online website, they also reduce their overheads.
I can certainly see the benefit of an online store for the business but the implementation isn't as simple as putting up an e-store. They'd have to increase their market share to justify the additional cost of business, so they'd need to create user database and study consumer patterns. This will allow them to carry relevant stocks to suit the location and season.
The sum it up, it is a lot of effort, time and cost, and the business will have to weigh it up against the benefit and the company's direction.
@tshow: @tshow that's the reason I have kept the forum open to get opinion. Thanks for your valuable inputs
what does aldi have to lose?
All the add-on sales that the people would have bought whilst in the store. For Click & Collect they would go to the front counter and not wander around the store.
Yes, perhaps it works for some, but it was actually the opposite for me.
I wanted a charcoal chimney and a bunch of other smaller items in the past. I recall driving around to one store, none left or they never stocked it (bought nothing), went to another one close by with the same result. Since then I have not bothered with anything small. I dont have time to stuff around 'browsing' or plan my entire day around getting to Aldi to MAYBE buy something a little cheaper.
I have only purchased a larger shelf thing. Because it was large and I especially had to go in early for it, I also did not buy any groceries.
Don't get me wrong, go to Aldi occasionally because theres a few items I like which are cheaper there, but I never go in just for smaller items now. I think I once bought a hose adapter randomly when browsing.
I can guarantee you if I could click and collect, Id plan to go grab the item and buy a few groceries at the same time. For me, knowing i have that item guaranteed means i'd plan some groceries or booze purchases around that.
Each to his own i guess.
Costco doesn't work for me either because it takes forever to get through the lines when youre only buying a few items. They don't have the concept of an express lane.
Good luck with that. Aldi runs a slimmed down operation, they don't take the items out of the packing boxes but put them as-is on the shelves. C&C would tie up staff more than it's worth for them.
Aldi have enough of a problem even keeping the advertised lines in stock and on the shelf, expecting them to go looking on the shelf for weekly deals (that are often out of stock) will at best yield a (virtual) shrug.
Aldis whole premise is to get you into store to search for an item.
once you are searching for an item you see other items you want.
I thought Aldi's premise was to make Lidl look good.
very true
how about Audi online?
Only for $80K+ high yielding range.
op is talking about aldi
But if ALDI lost the traffic of customers attending for items they are unaware are sold out, they will lose a lot of traffic.
I infrequently shop at ALDI, but several times a year I am lured by a special, which is rarely still available. If they had click and collect I might never go.
wouldn't click and collect mean you have to go..
Not if there is no stock to collect
Dear OP,
You sound like a young ambitious person with a great international track record coaching startups and disrupting various industries.
We would like to offer you a non-executive board position. Salary $185k+
Regards,
ALDI
Look you can't just go around offering non-executive board positions to everyone otherwise, everyone will want one… https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/296994
Strange users lying in forums distributing board positions is no basis for a form of corporate governance!
Help help the OP's being repressed.
Thanks for the offer, you made my day , now no need to purchase any more lotto
Needs a car as well… musn't forget the car.
Needing a car is like getting a Costco Membership, once you have it you use it all the time!
We are about to propose to Aldi this idea to go online for the benefit of the consumer and business.
Better go down on both knees when you propose.
ALDI closed their online liquor business last year to "in order to concentrate on the expansion into South Australia and Western Australia."
That was outsourced.
Bit of a bad joke unfortunately.
I stock up on food at Aldi every four weeks.
Prefer to stagger my grog purchases,especially as some specials are not available at Colac.
Would cost too much.
They don't even pack items into bags.
I doubt it. Aldi have a proven formula that works for them.
Any deviation from that tends to come from OS experience.
Of course they adapt to local issues. Aldi are experimenting with this in the UK. I would guess after they understand all the issues/benefits they may bring that to Oz.
So dream on about just rocking up to Aldi HQ and expecting a meeting with the executive staff with coffee and biscuits in the boardroom
Hi ! Slightly irrelevant but I couldn't really find a definite answer and I dont know many people who shop at ALDI regularly.
The Special Buy sales, are the items only on offer for that one day that its out, or is it until the next special buy day? I want to get an ottoman thats coming out on the 25th SB sale, but we can only make it there on Sunday.
They start selling from that day. They may sell out in 5 minutes or haunt the remainders trays for weeks, depending on demand.
oooh thanks. I'm not sure what the demand will be like on ottomans, but i did want the power cube as well, might just have to lug the thing all by myself on Saturday instead :(
I am eyeing on power cube as well
They tend to shuffle goods from non demand area to demand area
I'd say the reason a lot of the good buys sell out so fast is aldi's risk policy. they don't want to buy too many in case they don't sell. If they did an online pre-order kind of thing, they could get a better idea of demand and order more if required
I used to work for a studio that photographed the stock for the catalogues that come twice a week.
Aldi holds the stock ten to twelve weeks in advance so they can make sure that everything hits the shelves on the intended week. That way they know that there won't be any mishaps along the way. Nothing gets photographed for a catalogue of they aren't holding the stock and the catalogues are shot about 8 weeks prior.
I don't know many customers (other than Apple fans) that would be willing to preorder and pay for something over three months in advance.
In that case that customer should just buy on AliExpress and have the item in a shorter period and maybe even cheaper. But then miss out on the 60 days no questions asked money back guaranteed.
I could imagine that the good items would be all held out the back waiting for customers to collect while the ones that queue in the mornings would arrive and find that there's no stock.
Aldi gathers their data of good sales products based on what they sold and whether it's worth reordering again.
They've got a good strategy that works for them, don't see why they'd need to deviate
@Dpkmax: the original reason for having special buys at Aldi stores was as a draw card for people shopping for groceries and giving them the chance to by something other than groceries. the special buys were a bit of mystery so people would be attracted to shop at Aldi out of curiosity (what would be this weeks special buy??!!) and the chance of grabbing a bargain (and while they were there they would buy their groceries.)
allowing people to "pre-order" online goes against this basic and core tenet of Aldi.
I believe it would be counter productive.
Aren't they all listed in a catalogue now?
yes, but not everything. though I was mainly referring to the original business/marketing plan of when Aldi started 100 years aog.
Cashiers sit and you pack your own stuff so it be too much effort for them to pick your order.
Op if you want to randomly email businesses telling them to get a better online presence and allow click and collect why not start with Bunnings they're long overdue (though good to see they'll be offering it in the UK so may come here eventually)
As for Aldi, I doubt they want to be in that business, they dont want to employ more staff to collate customer orders, and it stops the customers lining up creating a feel of specials and then having more customers come into the store to try and get a deal, most would just see "sold out" on the website and not bother going in.
So you want aldi to become AliExpress but with 60 days money back guaranteed.
Seeing that a lot of people take advantage of this guarantee I don't think how this can backfire on Aldi. 🙄🙄
Aldi has an excellent return policy, 365 days. So better than aliexpress ;)
Return policy is excellent I must admit
I think you are mistaken. You can return any special item up to 60 days after the purchase as long as you have a receipt. No questions asked.
://www.aldi.com.au/en/about-aldi/returns-policy/
The point is the OP wants Aldi to play the AliExpress game but also accept returns.
Not many people return goods to AliExpress because it is a pain and you have to cover the postage costs. If Aldi does the online thing and keep their return policy as is then that may end up with a lot of slightly used, unpackaged goods to dispose of. It won't happen always but it would. I have returned a few things myself (meat slicer, fitbit wannabe thing, hunting camera, one of their first LCD TVs that was terrible).
If OP wants to buy online the Aldi specials he can find them on AliExpress or on eBay afterwards.
Hmmm they do say 60 days for a return (change of mind). But for warranty, I've found they'll just refund your money on the spot if its still in warranty.
Good point
Aldi weekly bargains are to get you in to the store. Click/collect while you go to the store, you don't wonder. Won't happen.
Get up early like the rest of us.
I am awake early , only thing is I am at work.
Aldi has been running supermarkets all over the world for more than a hundred years. They surely know what they are doing especially their marketing has proven super effective.
Rest assured, if they don't offer something, they do that intentionally.
In this case it is most likely because they WANT you to come to their stores for their weekly specials and while you are there, do your weekly grocery shopping as well.
I doubt they make a lot of money from the specials alone, they are more of a bait to convert people to regular customers.
They are competing with Woolworths and Coles, not with ebay.
Very true however game can change anytime Look for example Nokia once they were leaders in mobile phone.
The same could be said for coles/woolies when ALDI entered the market. They both had the lion share and look at it today.
ALDI doesn't want you to buy just the specials, they want you to do your weekly shop as well. The specials are a draw card into the store for people who normally wouldn't go in.
Just because you're missing out, doesn't mean ALDI will change its model. Do you shop at ALDI for anything else or just the specials? If the later, then ALDI isn't missing out on much profit if it doesn't get your business.
That's why he said click and collect.
This is already done in UK. I believe it started in the beginning of 2016. I would be surprised if it isnt already planned or they have decided it isnt viable for them.
https://www.aldi.co.uk/customer-services/online-orders
@RoyceLeroy wonder why UK has this option and not us
First of all, sorry about all the abrupt replies. People on OzBargain often think they're on the Shark Tank panel :)
No one knows for certain what the future will bring economically, socially, technologically or politically. I'm also interested to see what happens to Aldi's business model when Amazon arrives full force in Australia. Either Aldi has created a godly, impervious formula or it's "adapt or die" (and all those other wanky phrases).
@peterpeterpumpkin Thanks for your wise comment Yes its a wait and watch as Amazon enters the market soon
bargain buys are normally Loss leaders,
Basic idea is get a small amount of stock to advertise at no margin or small loss.
This generates more foot traffic, rely on the fact majority of people will buy other things once there.
Rinse repeat next week.
Click and collect goes against what they are actually trying to achieve by the loss leaders.
Don't you think Aldi have thought all this through? They've been operating in other countries for decades. They don't offer any fringe benefits such as click&collect, delivery or even music playing in stores - these lack of provisions help towards keeping prices down. Personally,I am more than happy to go browse the store & purchase knowing I am saving heaps.Clever marketing on their part.
Aldi's market strategy is clever and demonstrably highly effective. To break into the market they have needed to get shoppers habitually spending in their stores, to do this they need to give them a reason to draw them in. The Special Buys are a way to do this, the way they work very much matches a 'Loss Leader' strategy.
"Loss lead" describes the concept that an item is offered for sale at a reduced price and is intended to "lead" to the subsequent sale of other items, the sales of which will be made in greater numbers, or greater profits, or both. It is offered at a price below its minimum profit margin—not necessarily below cost. The firm tries to maintain a current analysis of its accounts for both the loss lead and the associated items, so it can monitor how well the scheme is doing, as quickly as possible, thereby never suffering an overall net loss.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loss_leader
As the market matures for Aldi in Australia they may seek to expand or retain their share by offering channels such as online sales, but for now they are growing their share and the Special Buys are doing their bit by drawing shoppers into the stores. I can't see this benefiting by offering online sales, rather online sales of Special Buys would detract from their benefit to Aldi's growth as shoppers missing out on a buy are possibly not going to visit a store that they would have visited.
TLDR: The bottom line is it doesn't matter too much to Aldi if they sell you a Special Buy or not, what matters is they've got you into their store and online sales don't necessarily do that.
i never shop at ald.
I read their catalogues and see some cool stuff i would like to buy but the closest Aldi to me being chadstone and with such a high volume of customers all the good stuff gets sold out fairly quickly.
Anyone eyeing on power Ine note the below message from Aldi
Please note that the Power Cube, previously advertised for sale with these Assorted TV & Phone Accessories, will not be available for sale.
Aldi run on skeleton crew, to pay someone extra to organise click and collect, would not be worth it.
Space would probably be an issue too considering the size of the stores.
They want you to go in to the store so you potentially buy something else.
You have completely missed the point Of ALDI special buys. The minimal stock is only half a step away from a bait and switch scam. You need to get with it.
Yes, just the bait part.
Aren't Aldi special buys a myth I've never seen one!
I have 5 of those myths sitting in a room at home in the form of the WiFi speakers.
For the price they are good. They aren't Sonos but at a third of the price and with some equalising they do a great job.
And they have batteries too. Nice stuff.
The booking chairs they offered a couple of years ago are also great, the new ones are too heavy as the frame wasn't aluminium anymore.
They do exist. Just like unicorns and leprechauns
who are you?