As Aldi’s eagerly awaited wine website hits the market, is the discounter’s offer going to challenge its more established competition?
Certainly in the offline world, Aldi has built a reputation for offering decent quality value-for-money bottles of plonk. And we’ve all heard the anecdotal reports of middle-class shoppers sneaking into Aldi to stock up. So it’s an obvious step for Aldi to take this category online.
And to ensure a profitable endeavour it’s selling by the case, to keep minimum order values relatively high – as many of its competitors also do.
The proposition
Aldi’s wine site is responsive, meaning it displays well on devices of all sizes.
The site has clear navigation sign-posting and outlines the proposition: selling wine by the case – including mixed cases – and offering free standard delivery at the moment.
Standard delivery takes 3-5 days, although customers can also pay for next-day, named-day or delivery to a Collect+ location.
“Compared to some of the competition, this fulfilment proposition is behind the curve”
Jeremy Wilson, Practicology
Compared to some of the competition, this fulfilment proposition is behind the curve.
Majestic offers free delivery from its stores – meaning customers book a convenient delivery – as well as free click-and-collect.
At the value end of the market, Bargain Booze offers click-and-collect from selected stores within two hours of the order being placed, as well as delivery.
Majestic Wine’s boss Rowan Gormley said last year he was unconcerned about Aldi’s arrival online due to the services and experience it offers. It’s true that Majestic provides added value, including free glass loan for parties, gift-wrapping and gift lists. Aldi isn’t competing on this.
The right delivery and service proposition is only half the battle. A site must be easy to use to convert browsers to buyers.
Ease of navigation
Novice wine buyers are likely to need more hand-holding to select appropriate products, while experts may want to search for specific products they are already aware of.
Aldi’s main site navigation is simpler than Majestic Wine’s – customers need to select a colour of wine and then narrow that selection by a list of criteria including price, grape, country of origin and Aldi’s award winning range.
Majestic offers quicker journeys to a narrowed selection with a bigger main navigation menu and offers more ways to narrow a selection, including by customer ratings. Majestic also allows customers to add-to-bag from a search results or category page.
At the product details page both offer great product information, as well as more general information about their pedigree as wine buyers.
SEO boost needed
A Google search for “Aldi Wine” shows the grocer has considered SEO, ensuring webpages appear in natural search results.
However, a Google search for “Merlot red wine” bought up paid and natural search results from many competitors, but none from Aldi. If Aldi wants to attract customers who don’t already know about its products or that it’s started selling online, it must address this.
This isn’t the first time that a supermarket has tried to shake-up the wine buying experience online. Morrisons Cellar made lots of big promises but ultimately just became another player in a competitive market.
“Aldi has a real opportunity due to the profile that its products already enjoy”
Jeremy Wilson, Practicology
But despite the fairly simple site that Aldi has launched without offering click-and-collect from its own stores, the retailer has a real opportunity due to the profile that its products already enjoy.
It must match the offline customer perception that its wine category enjoys with online awareness raising through traffic-generating digital media channels. Then it has a good chance not only of attracting existing Aldi shoppers, but taking share from competitors too.
- Jeremy Wilson is Practicology’s chief commercial officer.
No comments yet