Development Story:

Aldi is a small discount food supermarket chain in Germany.

Its predecessor was a food retail store opened by Anna Albrecht in 1913 in the mining area on the outskirts of Essen, Germany.

It was later taken over and expanded by her sons Carl and Theo in 1948.

The store was reorganized in 1962, and the first food supermarket named Aldi was born in Dortmund.

In the mid-1960s, the Albrecht brothers disagreed over whether the company should sell cigarettes. To resolve the dispute, they separated the company. The brothers subsequently divided the chain into Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud, operating different retail industry chains under the same simple principles, each expanding globally.

To this day, Aldi is still owned by brothers Carl and Theo of the Albrecht family, who operate Aldi's North store in North Germany and the South store in South Germany respectively.

Aldi in Germany:

There are more than 4,000 stores in Germany.

The two companies in the north and south began to operate independently in 1966.

The two companies have a good relationship, use the same brand and sometimes deal with suppliers together.

North Aldi belongs to brother Carl, with 35 independent regional subsidiaries and more than 2,500 branches; South Aldi belongs to younger brother Theo, with 25 independent subsidiaries and more than 1,600 branches.

There is an Aldi in an area with an average German population of 25,000. Germany has a population of more than 80 million. 75% of the population often go shopping at Aldi, of which 20 million are regular customers.

Aldi's global distribution:

Aldi operates more than 10,000 stores in 20 countries around the world, and the rest are in 17 countries in Europe, America and Oceania.

In 1979, Aldi Nord acquired the fashionable discount chain Trader Joe's. Currently, the company operates 475 stores in the United States. In addition, Aldi Nord is also responsible for managing Aldi stores in northern Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg.

AldiSub is responsible for Aldi stores in southern Germany, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Switzerland and the United States, as well as the Hofer chain in Slovenia.

Aldi in Belgium is called Lansa, Aldi in the Netherlands is called Combi, and Aldi in Austria is called Hofer.

Aldi named Aldi in China. In order to control quality, they chose to enter China’s largest cross-border import e-commerce platform. On March 20, 2017, the Aldi flagship store was officially launched on Tmall.

High quality and low price Aldi:

In the early days, Aldi was called: a poor man’s store. Trying to do everything possible to save customers money is a philosophy Aldi has always adhered to, and it is also the ultimate way to defeat the enemy.

While ensuring quality, Aldi’s products are 30 to 50 yuan cheaper than ordinary supermarkets. Among the most respected corporate brands in Germany, Aldi ranks third, second only to Siemens and BMW.

In a rare public speech, Carr said: ""Our business has only one basis: the lowest price." This principle still applies today.

Aldi has seized the retail opportunity Essence: Carry out the low-price strategy to the end while ensuring high quality.

Features of Aldi supermarkets:

There are no shelves, and products are packed in cartons and stacked on bare shelves. , and the crowding level cannot be increased.

There is no modern supermarket equipment in the store, and there are no labels on the products. Instead, the price list is hung directly above the head.

Insisting on using the simplest cash register, which only accepts cash (no bank cards are accepted), which has saved Aldi a lot of office equipment investment and management and maintenance costs.

Aldi adopts a smart shopping cart rental system. Before using it, customers must put a coin into the shopping cart to unlock it. If the customer wants to get back the money they put in the coin, they must return to shopping. Cars, which is why the Aldi chain’s shopping carts are always so neat.

Aldi sells three products:

1) High-quality and low-priced products: as the quality goes up, the price goes down

2) Attentive service (no reason to return, Provide packaging sizes for individual needs, rather than packaging sizes for families)

3) Simplified selection (only focus on more than 700 products, and only provide one choice for each product, that is, similar products The best brand in China, although there are few types, the categories are complete and enough to meet the needs of life)

Aldi’s sales management:

1) Advertising-free sales

2 ) Simplify unnecessary services and save manpower

3) Return prices to zero

4) Sales on site

5) Regular supply of non-food products (Kitchenware, stationery, radios, computers, etc. are regularly provided to consumers every week or every two weeks. The revenue from these products accounts for 20% of the total revenue).

6) Update products at any time, reject high-priced brands, focus on building low-priced private brands, and sell a series of free-brand products. 90% of the products sold by ALDI are its own brands.

Aldi purchasing habits:

1) Single product purchasing champion: Warmart, the world’s largest retail chain, has annual sales of 200 billion yuan, and Aldi has annual sales of 33 billion yuan, but Aldi is the world's largest wholesaler, purchasing goods with a total unit value of more than €50 million every year. In comparison, Walmart only has 1.5 million euros, which is only one-20th of Aldi’s. Therefore, the products sold by Aldi are generally 10-20 cheaper than other supermarkets, and some are even 50 cheaper.

2) Aldi’s products are the smallest among similar stores, limited to 700 types.

3) Due to the small variety of goods, the sales volume of a single type of goods is large, and the purchase volume of such goods is much larger than that of ordinary supermarkets. Suppliers cannot resist what Aldi provides them. Sales channels and scale response of competing brands.

4) A single type of goods greatly reduces logistics costs, saves shelf size, and gives Aldi and suppliers an absolute advantage in quality control and price negotiations.

Aldi’s purchasing criteria:

1) Sales volume. If a certain product does not sell well, it will be removed from the inventory. Only products whose sales volume exceeds a certain standard can gain a foothold in the store.

2) Quality: The food brands sold by Aldi may not be brand names, but most of them are products of famous brand manufacturers, but they are changed to an unknown trademark, which ensures the quality of Aldi products. quality, and maintain the image and value of famous brand products. For non-food items, Aldi pays more attention to value for money. Aldi sells computers that have the highest ratings from experts, but are almost always the lowest priced. In the field of many non-food commodities such as electronic commodities operated by Aldi, its sales volume is among the best in Germany, even surpassing those of professional sellers. For example, 60% of Germans have purchased computers at Aldi.

Aldi’s procurement methods:

1) Global procurement: Purchase products from wherever they are competitive, purchase from the country of origin, and purchase in large quantities all year round to ensure low prices.

2) Quality assurance provided by the importer or foreign manufacturer.

? Importers’ requirements for suppliers are generally:

? a. Large-scale manufacturers are preferred

? b. Able to accept large orders with affordable prices Very competitive

? c. Have experience in exporting to Europe, especially the German market

? d. FOB payment terms: L/C at sight

? e. Factories that have passed (social responsibility) audits are given priority

3) A stable supply of goods is controlled.

4) Produce and sell some products by ourselves.

Comparison between Aldi and Lidl:

Although the positioning of Lidl and Aldi is basically the same in the eyes of most people, according to the evaluation of the German media, the quality of Lidl is much higher than that of Aldi . According to a blind test conducted by German TV station ARD-Discounter Check, most people who participated in the test believed that Lidl's various products taste better.

Compared with Aldi, Lidl's prices are slightly more expensive. Aldi's principle is to set the price first, and then find the supplier that does the best at that price. Therefore, Aldi's prices are fixed. The salesperson can directly set the price without scanning the QR code, and the checkout speed is very fast.

Aldi and Walmart comparison: