Aldi has partnered with DoorDash to usher in a long-awaited grocery delivery service.
The German retailer will start trialling the new service today in Canberra, with the national rollout coming later in the year. While Aldi's special buys will not be available for delivery, more than 1800 products, including fresh produce, meat, seafood, dairy, bread and household staples, will be.
“Since entering the Australian market, ALDI’s mission has been to deliver high quality groceries at the lowest prices for Australian households and this ambition remains as strong as ever,” Aldi Australia chief commercial officer, Jordan Lack said.
“Through our partnership with DoorDash, we can now literally deliver on this mission directly to Aussies’ doorsteps in an exciting new way that we know our customers have been seeking.”
According to E&P analyst Phillip Kimber, the online grocery segment now accounts for almost 11% of the overall grocery market, allowing Aldi to compete with larger competitors like Coles and Woolworths.
Kimber said online growth at Cole and Woolworths has significantly outpaced in-store growth with 20% and 22.6% increases in online sales year-on-year, respectively.
Both the major supermarkets have their own apps, while also being available on Uber Eats and Coles being on DoorDash.
While Aldi tried building its own fulfilment network, the grocer found it was incompatible with its low-cost promise.
“We determined that that would have to be paid for by the consumer, and consequently, that was not something that we thought was reasonable for us to explore ... in order to preserve our low-cost position in the market,” Lack said.
After seeing the success of Aldi delivery on DoorDash in the U.S., Australia decided to follow suit as a compromise to keep prices low.
While the Australian service is currently only available in Canberra, there are plans for 85% of Australians to have access to the service.
This comes as Costco Australia also partnered with DoorDash earlier this year.
