A new study by retail and shopper marketing agency Savvy has revealed that more than half of UK shoppers have visited an Aldi (55%) and Lidl (53%) in the past three months, an indication of how the discounters are now very much part of the mass market.
According to the survey of 1,000 household shopping decision makers, even those in the affluent AB demographic are regular shoppers at Aldi, with 56% of this cohort visiting the discounter in the past three months.
In addition, 42% of UK shoppers say they prefer the shopping experience and Aldi and Lidl compared to larger supermarkets, while 67% say that the discounters' own label products are as good as leading brands.
Three-fifths of respondents said they would like it if Aldi and Lidl opened a store closer to their home.
The preference towards the discounters is more pronounced among the younger generation, with 75% of 18 to 25 year olds saying they have visited an Aldi in the past three months. Savvy's data found that this younger generation of shoppers don't see the retailers as 'new kids on the block' or even as discounters; they see them as supermarkets that sell quality products at competitive prices.
More To Do
At the same time, the study found that the Big Four retailers in the UK have 'made good progress' in terms of bringing their prices down and restoring competitiveness, but there is more work to be done on this front.
Shopper perceptions around brands are also changing, with more than two thirds (70%) of UK shoppers saying they are less loyal to brands than they were ten years ago, while 66% believe brands are less relevant than they were a decade ago.
Structural Change
"No one is in any doubt that the market is undergoing a period of substantial structural change," said Alastair Lockhart, Insight Director at Savvy. "The Big Four retailers have all significantly altered their course over recent years and brands have felt the impact on a number of levels, from rationalisation of ranges, increasing own label participation and pressure to keep a lid on price inflation."
He added that the research indicates that the period of change is "far from over", noting that perceptions about retailers differ greatly between older and younger shoppers.
"Younger shoppers have not been conditioned to think of brands in the same way as previous generations did and as such they don’t have such a strong sense of loyalty to brands. This is of crucial importance because in only a few years they will represent the majority retail spending on food and grocery. This demographic reality suggests that brands need to prepare themselves for further changes for many years to come.”
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
