The cut back has come as a surprise following Aldi chief executive Giles Hurley hinting at major expansion plans for click-and-collect at the end of 2022. Hurley told shoppers to 'watch this space' when it came to rolling out the service across more of its stores.
Aldi also stopped offering online delivery on wine in January and will stop online orders of its special buys later this year.
Here, Which? reveals where Aldi has stopped offering click and collect, more about why it has made the changes, and what Aldi shoppers think about shopping with the discounter.
Where has Aldi stopped click and collect?
Aldi stopped offering shoppers a click-and-collect service - where you order online then collect your shopping from the store - at 12 stores at the end of June.
The stores that no longer offer click and collect are:
Aldi said that shoppers who'd signed up to its newsletter have already been told about the click-and-collect service being stopped. It added that over 200 of its approximately 990 UK stores do still offer the service.
When we asked Aldi if it had plans to stop offering click and collect at any other stores in the future, it didn't confirm either way.
Aldi launched click and collect in September 2020, following a turbulent few months for supermarkets as covid-19 swept the country and caused every UK supermarket that offered online ordering to sell out of delivery/click-and-collect slots and, in many cases, websites to crash.
Find out moreWhy has Aldi made the changes?
An Aldi spokesperson told Which? that it has ‘paused’ click and collect at 12 stores due to ‘insufficient demand’ from shoppers. They added, however, that ‘footfall and sales continue to grow rapidly’ in the regions where the 12 branches are located.
Which? spoke to industry insiders to find out more. Natalie Berg, founder of retail consultancy NBK Retail, said that the cost of running a click-and-collect service might have been a factor in Aldi's decision.
Berg added: ‘The discounters are all about simplicity and operational efficiencies, so anything that adds cost into that model is naturally going to be scrutinised.’
Speaking about the wider trend of offering click and collect, Glynn Davis, founder of trade publication Retail Insider, said that if minimum spend thresholds for click-and-collect orders were lowered ‘this would drive greater adoption. Currently, I can’t see [demand for] click and collect increasing unless an incentive [for customers] is introduced.’
Aldi doesn't require a minimum spend on click-and-collect orders but does charge £4.99 per slot, which could be off-putting for some.
Find out more:What do shoppers think about Aldi?
In our annual supermarkets survey, almost 700 Aldi customers rated the discounter on aspects including stock availability, store appearance and value for money, both in-store and for online click-and-collect orders.
For in-store shopping, Aldi scored positively for value for money and quality of own-label and fresh products. But it didn’t fare so well when it came to queueing time at the checkout and product availability.
As for click and collect, it got middling scores for its choice of substitute items, customer service at collection and product range, but scored slightly lower for its stock availability.
source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/aldi-axes-click-and-collect-from-some-stores-ak6Ez6n5qnDN