German supermarket group ALDI is expanding their Asian presence, with their first stores opening in Shanghai tomorrow, June 7.
The German retail giant was launched in China online in 2017, via Alibaba’s online retail platform Tmall Global, during which time they have been gaining the necessary foundation to understanding the Chinese consumers’ purchasing behavior.
Image courtesy of ALDI
"At ALDI, we evaluate any new market entry on an individual basis to ensure our strategy fits the local practice and customer needs," ALDI told That’s Shanghai. "We’ve spent years studying the China grocery retail market to carefully analyse the current environment, understand what and where Chinese consumers want to shop for foreign products, and how best to enter the market in a thoughtful and strategic way."
The brick and mortar stores of ALDI China will be in Jing’an and Minhang districts of Shanghai, making this the 11th country the retailer operates in outside of Germany.
"These stores will give us more opportunities to trial and test retail approaches, and adjust our operations and plans according to data and feedback from our customers. This new store format has been customised and tailored specifically for the China market to better understand and interact with Chinese consumers," the company said.
Image courtesy of ALDI
ALDI are committed to a long-term presence in China. "We want to ensure that we are pacing our development in China appropriately. We will focus on the operations of our two pilot stores and continue to evolve and improve our assortment to give our customers a better shopping experience."
Image courtesy of ALDI
According to German consumer goods specialist firm Lebensmittel Zeitung, ALDI is looking to attract China’s growing middle-class population as part of its big expansion plan into South East Asia, by offering high-quality imports and living up to its Chinese slogan 'Handpicked for You'.
ALDI China online currently offers a variety of products specifically for the Chinese market, with exclusive brands that have been locally sourced, such as nuts, biscuits, popular beverages, ready-to-cook products like noodles and hotpot ingredients, as well as fresh produce of vegetables, fruits, and meat.
Image courtesy of ALDI
"In the past two years, we have learnt a lot about conducting business in China, and introducing categories and products to the Chinese consumers," they say. "We have increased our assortment to include locally sourced products to better serve Chinese customers. We have also developed an integrated online to offline retail experience in our stores that is specifically tailored to the China market. We believe that exclusive brands and our operational efficiency is ALDI’s strongest differentiator around the world."
ALDI China will also continue to operate its online trading platform.
[Cover image courtesy of ALDI]
See a listing for ALDI Jing'an here, and ALDI Minghang here.
Read more Food & Drink News
0 User Comments