Aldi is making a huge change to its website – and customers will be very unhappy
ALDI is pulling the plug on its online operation by axing deliveries from its website.
It means customers will no longer be able to buy cheap wine cases or order Specialbuys to their door.
The bargain retailer will start winding down all of its online operations later this year, The Sun has learned.
It comes more than eight years after it first started selling wine cases in 2015, as a way to attract more customers.
Shoppers often queue online to snap up Specialbuy bargains, including its heated clothes airer and popular Kevin the Carrot toys.
Its recent huge sales growth has meant the discounter has decided it no longer needs the costs or distractions of an online business.
Instead it plans to focus on its target of 1,000 shops across the country. It currently has 950 branches.
Aldi declined to comment on whether there would be any job losses as a result of shutting its online business but said it hoped any affected staff would be able to take other opportunities at the growing supermarket.
An Aldi spokesperson said: “We are working with our colleagues to understand the impact of this change for our people.
“This will involve exploring different options for our colleagues across Aldi.”
It is not clear when the website will shut down ordering online.
Online grocery sales boomed during lockdowns in the pandemic with the online market doubling in size to 14.5%.
But as shoppers return to stores the share of the online market has fallen to 11.6 per cent, according to industry Kantar figures.
Making money from online deliveries eluded most retailers until the pandemic.
Last week, Aldi reported its best ever Christmas with a 26 per cent rise in sales in December to £1.4 billion as shoppers tightened their belts.
The discounter has poached shoppers from all of its rivals, despite them also selling billions of groceries online, overtaking Morrison’s as the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket.
However, the cost of keeping prices cheap has started to erode the privately-owned supermarket’s bottom line and last year profits fell 86 per cent to £36 million.
Aldi’s cheap plonk has been a major weapon to win over middle-class shoppers from rivals and it had initially ploughed £35 million into its wine cases deliveries, charging customers £3 for orders under £50.
The supermarket is going to phase out its wine and spirits deliveries later this month and there is already a reduced number available to buy on its website.
Aldi had also recreated its jumble-sale “middle aisle” online with Specialbuy products ranging from £149.99 hot tubs to power tools and gel nail sets.
That will now end this autumn as Aldi cans the home deliveries.
This could prove problematic for shoppers who want to buy some of its bulky bargains and don’t have a car to transport them home.
An Aldi spokesman said: “We keep our prices low by being the most efficient retailer in Britain and we have therefore taken the decision to stop selling wine and spirits online for home delivery from later this month.
“We will also stop selling our Specialbuys online for home delivery later this year.”
Catherine Shuttleworth at Savvy Marketing said “Their results show it doesn’t need online to drive growth because there is still enough headroom for them to win customers from their larger rivals on basic groceries.”
Aldi has already scrapped its partnership with Deliveroo, which it launched during the pandemic when shoppers stayed at home rather than risk catching coronavirus in stores.
It will still offer a grocery click and collect service, which requires customers to still visit its shops meaning it faces no extra delivery challenges.