If you order something online, you can pick up the goods later from a vending machine in some places – for example at Ikea. However, food retailers tend to hold back on this. Now Aldi Süd is daring to try it.
Following the supermarket chain Rewe, the discounter Aldi Süd has now also put some pick-up machines into operation to test their functionality and to gain insights into the changing customer demand. The test, which began in mid-July, is limited in time and region, the company said in response to a query. The “Lebensmittel Zeitung” had previously reported on this.
One machine is in Düsseldorf and two are in Mülheim an der Ruhr. For the discount giant with its around 2,000 branches in Germany, it is an innovative niche project that could provide a better insight into new shopping behavior in the age of online shopping. Another example is delivery services: Aldi Süd has been testing such a service since last autumn in a locally limited version. Competitor Rewe has been doing this on a large scale for some time. Rewe is also testing pickup machines.
How the Aldi machine works
Anyone who orders via the mein-aldi.de website or the associated app can collect the goods the next day or up to five working days later – access to the goods is not possible on the day of the order. The interior of the approximately seven-meter-long, three-meter-wide and three-and-a-half-meter-high container is refrigerated, so there are also fresh goods. Frozen goods are also available. Anyone who has ordered cleaning cloths will also be “served” these well chilled. The range is smaller than the range of goods in the store.
After the online purchase, the consumer is sent a QR code. This is scanned on the device, whereupon a glass door opens and a paper bag with the ordered products is ready. The order is not available at Aldi Süd around the clock, but only during a certain time window – in Düsseldorf, the order must be picked up between 3:15 p.m. and 9 p.m. The minimum order value is 20 euros, and there is no extra charge for the machine. The container containing the goods is located right next to a conventional Aldi branch in a parking lot.
Rewe is also involved
The machine is a branch of the so-called Click & Collect system. Here you order online and pick up the goods later. This saves you having to wait at the checkout and spend a long time searching in the aisles of the shop.
Competitor Rewe relies relatively heavily on click & collect; according to company information, every second supermarket in the chain with its 1,800 locations in Germany offers collection. However, in the vast majority of cases, this involves going to a specific area of the store and having an employee hand over the order. Rewe only has 16 collection machines nationwide – i.e. without contact with a person. These can be used around the clock, and most of them are in Cologne and Berlin.
“The stations are another way to give customers more flexibility when shopping,” says a Rewe spokesperson. “The collection station format is particularly suitable in inner cities where there is not enough space for a REWE store with a collection service.” Rewe does not have any major expansion plans for its vending machine presence: the supermarket chain says that it generally “prefers to expand the stationary collection service in the store.”
Experts dismiss
Industry experts were cautious about the economic potential of this offer. “The machine is likely to be expensive, especially since it is refrigerated and needs electricity,” says marketing professor Martin Fassnacht from the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.
Economically, this makes little sense given the relatively high storage costs, and also because the machines could lead to fewer “impulse purchases”: “People no longer go to the stores and then no longer buy spontaneously.” Although there are also spontaneous purchases on the Internet, from which online retailers profit, these are unlikely to have a significant impact at the discounter Aldi.
In principle, pick-up machines in retail have the advantage that consumers are no longer tied to opening hours and can get their purchases around the clock. The retail giant Amazon, for example, is doing this well with its “Locker” machines. In the food retail trade, however, the opening hours are already so extensive that hardly any customers have to worry about closed shops. “Some supermarkets are open until midnight, others start selling early in the morning.”
Advantage of constant availability
For a few people, it could still be an advantage to be able to get groceries in the middle of the night, says Fassnacht – in his view, this is probably the case with the Rewe vending machines, which are open around the clock. The three containers from Aldi Süd, on the other hand, are only available to customers during the opening hours of the branch next door. “This means that the discounter is missing out on the only small advantage of its plan,” says Fassnacht.
And what does the expert say about the fact that thanks to the pick-up machines, users may have to invest less time in shopping if they order via the app and pick up the groceries on the way home the next day? “The time factor probably only plays a minor role for consumers, after all, they usually don’t have to wait long in stores,” says Fassnacht. Supermarkets and discounters have also shortened waiting times by using payment machines.
The sister takes a different path
And what about the other part of the Aldi universe? The sister company Aldi Nord has so far refrained from using pickup machines and other click & collect offers. A company spokesperson says they want to make shopping as easy as possible for customers. “That’s why we are concentrating in particular on modernizing our stores and improving our customers’ shopping experience for quick and easy shopping,” explains the Aldi Nord spokesperson.
Source: Stern
