Aldi closing online liquor store

Aldi, The German Based Grocery Chain, Is Driving Retail Food PriDiscount grocer, Aldi, is closing its online liquor store to focus on expanding its supermarket chain across Australia.

The aldiliquor.com.au website will close on March 24, less than three years after it was launched by the German retail giant.

In a statement to Inside Retail, Aldi said, “We are constantly reviewing our business operations and processes to ensure we can continue to deliver exceptional value for our customers every day. This includes eliminating many of the costly extras associated with traditional supermarkets.

“With extensive expansion plans now well underway, we have made the decision to operate Aldi Online Liquor instore only from March 2016. This will enable us to focus on creating the best possible in store experience for customers, while continuing to deliver high-quality products permanently low prices.”

Aldi made the announcement in a letter to its customers late on Monday February 29. The letter stated:

Dear Customers,

ALDI Stores Australia regrets to announce the closure of its online liquor store – ALDIliquor.com.au – as of 4pm, Thursday March 24 2016. ALDI Australia is constantly reviewing our business operations and processes to ensure we can continue to deliver exceptional value for our customers every day. With our current expansion into South Australia and Western Australia this decision has been taken to enable ALDI to focus on creating the best possible in store experience for customers, while continuing to deliver high-quality products at permanently low prices. The ALDI in-store liquor range will be unaffected by this change.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for their support ofALDIliquor.com.au. The site will be trading as usual until the closing date with some fantastic special offers to stock up your liquor collection. Our standard terms and conditions will continue to apply to all purchases including the 100 per cent satisfaction guarantee, which will be honoured after the closure date. For any holders of store credits these can be used until closure of the store with any remaining credit exchangeable for liquor online or an instore gift voucher. For any enquiries please call 1300 ALDI.

The move will not affect liquor sales in Aldi stores. The retailer’s Australian store numbers have swollen since 2001 with over 400 in Queensland, the ACT, NSW, Victoria and South Australia.

Aldi’s decision to pull out of the online liquor market comes just days after Woolworths reported booming liquor sales. The Woolworths-owned Dan Murphy’s and BWS store chains, which both offer online sales, enjoyed a 4.9 per cent jump in sales to $4.4 billion in the six months to December 31 despite strong competition from rivals.

Woolies said its Dan Murphy’s business had reported strong double-digit growth in online sales.

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