December 22 2008

German discounters begin the move online

Lidl has opened a non-food online operation in Germany and has international plans for it, while Aldi is launching a UK version of its discount travel site in the new year

Lidl has opened its first online store in Germany, offering a range of discounted non-food items. Official information is scarce but, in a press release from Wirecard (the new Lidl-Shop's payment services provider), a Lidl spokesman makes the retailer's international plans for the site quite clear. "As regards to the future development of the shop, it is particularly important for us to cooperate with a partner who has an international presence, both in the field of payments and in risk management services," he says.

The retailer also has an online travel service and is rumoured to have international plans for that as well.

Aldi, meanwhile, will launch its new Aldi Travel service in the UK on January 8th. According to the Guardian:

Three nights' skiing in Fieberbrunn near Kitzb in Austria will cost from £119 per person, four-star half-board, for example; a week in Tenerife would cost from £6.50 per person per night self-catering and a three-night city break to Rome from £33 per person per night B&B.

The deals will have a short shelf-life; six 'mega' deals fitting a certain type of holiday — summer holidays first, then city breaks and ski trips — will be distributed on printed leaflets in the supermarkets for a two-week period, and customers will have four weeks to book them before they expire, to be replaced by another six deals. Further stock will be available on the website alditravel.co.uk, which goes live on January 8, with a total of 150 holidays displayed there. All must be booked through the website or phone line.

They won't all be the bargain basement equivalent of no-frills beans accommodation will range from three-five star, with only one or two options in each destination, selected because they offer 'something really special'.

The focus will be on short-haul initially, including, for example, ski trips to Chamonix, Val d'Isere and Courcheval; summer holidays to the Algarve, Balearics and Aegean and city breaks in Rome, Vienna and Geneva, with 22 departure airports around the country. However, it may branch out to long-haul, such as China and the US, if there's the demand.

All bookings, even individual low-cost flights, will be protected up to the value of £5,000 under Aldi's own bonding scheme.

by Sarah Clark (Web Editor)