Lidl and e-commerce are no longer a novelty, except in France where the distributor has had its first store since 1989. The German hard discount brand made its debut in online sales on its market nationwide in 2008.
She then opened shops on the Internet in 7 other countries. France is therefore the eighth, after Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. Officially, the site will open its virtual doors on June 1st.
Lidl loser during the Covid
Since May 24, Lidl has launched its communication campaign. As one manager confided to LSA, this Internet launch of a store dedicated to non-food products is its first item of expenditure in 2023.
For these beginnings, Lidl.fr is therefore a thousand products available for sale. The DIY, sport, textile or bazaar categories are represented. The number of references should increase thereafter. The objective is a ramp-up by February 2024.
And if Lidl focuses its e-commerce strategy on non-food, it is to guarantee complementarity with its network of physical stores. The site is not intended to compete with the classic retail of the brand.
It will however be able to complete the catchment area of the discounter, which displays 1,580 supermarkets on French territory. Despite everything, Lidl was slow to open e-commerce in France, its second market after Germany.
Ambitious distributors on e-commerce
All the distribution brands are already established in this market via sites and drives. They even display strong ambitions in terms of growth. For example, Carrefour has set itself the target of an e-commerce GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) of €10 billion by 2026.
With the Covid, the e-commerce transactions of distributors have also experienced a real boom. A dynamic that Lidl, absent from e-commerce, did not take advantage of, and presented as one of “the losers of the Covid, for lack of drive.”
Our retail specialist colleagues point out, however, that hard discount is still lagging behind online sales, favoring a strategy described as defensive. Another reference brand in the segment, Aldi is still ignoring e-commerce.
Nevertheless, Lidl does not seem too penalized by this approach with a market share in France that has doubled in ten years according to Kantar Worldpanel (4% to 8%). In a context of high inflation, hard discount is also attracting new consumers, whom it can hope to convert to its non-food e-commerce.