The German discounter has a unique retail model that has captured market share around the globe, but it’s entry in China will be a little bit different.
On April 25 the company announced it had launched its Chinese presence through a collaboration with online retailer TMall Global.
The collaboration was announced at a fashion show organised by the two companies, where models were wearing clothes from the retailer.
“In recent years, retailers from different countries have put Tmall Global as a top choice when considering entering the Chinese market, and have achieved astounding sales,” Tmall Global general manager Alvin Liu was quoted as saying on Kejilie.com.
“Tmall Global is very honoured that we can collaborate with Aldi this time to explore new retailing opportunities together, and we believe that Aldi, known for its top-quality products, will be able to better meet the demand of Chinese consumers.
The story reported Aldi China CEO Christoph Schwaiger as describing the collaboration as the start of Aldi’s journey in China.
“We will try our very best to fulfil the promise to provide Chinese consumers with premium lifestyle products, and will proactively boost the growth of China’s retail scene and consumer spend,” he was quoted as saying.
Since March 20 when Aldi did its first trial on the Tmall platform, hundreds of SKUs (stock keeping units) have already been put online to complement the usual spending habits of consumers in China’s first and second tier cities.
During the trial period, products such as milk powder (for adults), honey and mixed nuts were bestsellers, and even ran out of stock. To solve the problem, Aldi was forced to ship in new stocks from Australia.
The company plans to expand its product range in future.
