E-Business applications

This article discusses the current competitive scenario of ALDI and how they are involving e-business applications to stay in the competition. It talks about the extra additional services searched by customers, multi-channeled groceries, and shopping moments. The article also discusses the opening of online stores and online wine delivery by ALDI. Finally, it provides recommendations for improvement.

Running head: E-BUSINESS APPLICATION
E-Business applications
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Current competitive scenario...........................................................................................................4
Extra additional services searched by customers.............................................................................5
Multi channeled groceries................................................................................................................5
Shopping moments..........................................................................................................................6
Involving e-business applications....................................................................................................6
Opening of online stores..................................................................................................................7
Online wine delivery by ALDI........................................................................................................7
Conclusion and Recommendation...................................................................................................8

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Introduction
ALDI is one of the German-based supermarket chains. Though it originally started in
Germany, it gradually extended its operation into different other parts of the world. Australia is
one of them. One of the major strengths of ALDI supermarket chains is that they give their
topmost priority to their customers (Voigt, Buliga and Michl 2017). They believe in making their
customers happy at all costs. ALDI is aware of the changing needs and demands of the
customers. They ate known for their discounted products. They want to sell their products at an
affordable price. The ALDI supermarket chain mainly operates in two main streams in the
current scenario, namely ALDI NORD and ALDI Sud. In the current scenario, ALDI is
operating in more than 9000 outlets in about 18 countries. The total amount of revenue earned by
them is huge, they earn about 53 billion Euros turnover on an average estimated amount. They
have about 100,000 employees working in all their outlets.
Current competitive scenario
However, in order to keep pace with the growing competition, they have to bring in some
of the other kinds of changes or upgradations in their working. In order to stay in the battle of the
retail market, they have to do a thorough market analysis and make sure that they are being able
to understand the current needs and demands of the customers. As per the opinion of Brandes
and Brande (2015), it can be said that ALDI enjoys a strong position in the market as it has a
wide variety of products. It provides a huge range of options for its customers (Kurnia, Karnali
and Rahim 2015). So, their customers can choose from a wide variety from a single store rather
than switching over to other stores. On the other hand, Chatterjee (2017) has argued that in this

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modern scenario the customers are looking for something other than just getting a wide range of
products to choose from.
Extra additional services searched by customers
The customers are looking for some extra services that will make their shopping
experience much exciting and much easier as well. The customers are looking for the online
retailing experience, In other words, they want to shop through the online means by sitting at any
corner of their home, office, college or any place and at any point of time. Many of the
customers are not willing for the brick and mortar stores. So, ALDI needs to expand their
marketing operations from the physical to the online sites as well. This is one of the major threats
on part of ALDI that it lacks in giving the customers a complete shopping experience.
Multi channeled groceries
On the other hand, more and more grocery sellers are becoming multi-channeled by
establishing their business online. They are creating this as an alternative to the traditional kinds
of brick and mortar supermarket chains that they have. These are basically the multi-channel
grocery shopping systems that are gaining large-scale popularity. The number of customers it is
attracting is increasing day by day. This is becoming even more popular because smartphones
have become one of the basic necessaries of life. This is evident from the huge crowd that
gathered outside the Apple stores for days or even weeks for being able to purchase the latest
iPhone or the iPad. So, smartphones with the latest technology have become one of the major
trends of the modern day scenario.

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Shopping moments
Apart from this, it is also evident from this scenario that customers are always excited
about the moments. The customers often fall in love with the brands of certain companies
through the different moments that they can get to enjoy. So, in the coming years, customers will
want to enjoy their purchasing moments via the online retail market rather than the brick and
mortar stores. One example of this is Sports Chek, who has created a concept store in Toronto
that will let the customers watch live videos, they can also ask for sample products to play with.
Not only this, but the customers also suggest their own designs for their preferred Reebok shoes.
In other words, they can customize their products. So, it gives the customers some very good and
cherishable moments or experiences. As per the opinion of Dough, phy-gital is the most probable
future that the retail markets will have in the coming scenarios. In other words, the retailers have
to concentrate both on the physical and the online digital stores as well. The shopping style of
people also varies as per their income (Berman 2015). The higher income groups usually shop on
the large baskets and they prefer it to be done online. This makes the whole shopping experience
very easy for them. They get to choose from a wide variety of products, compare the prices, see
the latest arrivals, and make use of the gift vouchers or the discount amounts.
Involving e-business applications
As ALDI is operating in many countries they must analyze the shopping trends or the
buyer behavior of the consumers (Melis et al. 2015). Many of the organizations are adopting the
B2B technology for making their customers happier in terms of the online grocery shopping. It is
essential for the grocery chains to develop the online retail sales both in the developing and
developed countries as well. The electronic commerce or the e-commerce will help them to
attract a number of customers with the help of the search engines (Turban et al. 2017). ALDI has

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to keep in mind that there is a very tough competition lying ahead of it. So, they have to build a
new business model and keep on upgrading it so that they can give a tough competition by
establishing a good customizer loyalty. They have to provide their customers with some extra
additional services that the customers are not getting in some other alternative stores (Suel and
Polak 2017).
Opening of online stores
ALDI has however realized the situation and agreed upon opening their online stores.
Aldi is already the sixth largest supermarket stores in the UK with 5.6percent market share and
they hope to open around 1000 more branches by the year 2022. However, they need to upgrade
themselves much more in to attract the attention of more number of customers and stay in the
competition. As per the ALDI, this process might turn out to be complicated in the begging.
However, they have realized the gravity of the situation and have arranged for the online
retailing (Turban et al. 2017). They have decided to start their online wine business in order to
give a luxurious shopping experience to all their customers. Wine is one of the best delicacies
that people use at parties, family gatherings or any other such occasions. So, the customers
always had this one wish that they wanted to be fulfilled by their favorite brands.
Online wine delivery by ALDI
In order to give the customers a wonderful and memorable experience of buying their
favorite brands of wine online ALDI has started its online wine store (Loose and Pabst 2018).
This is because one of their major attractions is the large and delicious range of wine collections
present at their store. Once they are successful in this online wine venture they will be focusing

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on the sale of the other materials through their e-commerce site. They have also started selling
the non-food items under the category called specialbuys in their online marketing sales.
Mathew Barnes who is the chief executive of Aldi is of the opinion that launching their
online business is one of the very important steps that they will be taking. However, they hope
that it will be of a great success just like their other previous steps. He was also of the opinion
that the online marketing will help them to reach out to some particular areas of the country
where they have not yet opened their physical stores. They have also started selling the non-food
items like the Halloween materials, cycling gear via their e-commerce sites. Aldi has started its
online stores both in the UK and in Australia. Aldi's attempt at starting the online stores has been
more or less successful in both these places.
Conclusion and Recommendation
However, as Aldi has stepped into the online retailing business very recently they must
realize that there are some aspects which they need to take proper care. They have to widen their
array of products that they are selling online. On the other hand, they also have to make sure that
the customers are getting a good amount of offers while making their purchase online. They must
create a more affordable option s for both the big basket and the small basket shoppers. Aldi has
to open many exciting discount offers and also free delivery systems so that the customers stay
attracted to their brand and are really benefitted from the same. They must also enlist all the
safety precautions on their online sites so that the customers can always stay aware of the safe
online shopping habits. They have to improve on their safety precautions so that no other false
sites or spammers can tamper with their discount coupons. As Aldi is already facing such issue

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of online fraudulent activities, they have to focus on their security and keep their customers
updated.

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References

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Berman, B., 2015. How to compete effectively against low-cost competitors. Business
Horizons, 58(1), pp.87-97.
Brandes, D. and Brandes, N., 2015. Bare Essentials: The Aldi Success Story. Linde Verlag
GmbH.
Chatterjee, S., 2017. Two efficiency-driven networks on a collision course: ALDI’s innovative
grocery business model vs Walmart. Strategy & Leadership, 45(5), pp.18-25.
doi/abs/10.1108/SL-06-2017-0057
Harris, P. and Usuriaga, D., 2017, June. An Investigation of Offline/Online Channel Patronage
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Kurnia, S., Choudrie, J., Mahbubur, R.M. and Alzougool, B., 2015. E-commerce technology
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Kurnia, S., Karnali, R.J. and Rahim, M.M., 2015. A qualitative study of business-to-business
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2015.03.003
Loose, S. and Pabst, E., 2018. Current State of the German and International Wine
Markets. Oceania, 634(2.2), pp.1-9.

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Melis, K., Campo, K., Breugelmans, E. and Lamey, L., 2015. The impact of the multi-channel
retail mix on online store choice: does online experience matter?. Journal of Retailing, 91(2),
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J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2018. EC Strategy, Globalization, SMEs, and
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Appendices

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