Lidl has announced it will start selling fresh products online in Germany.

Online grocery market evolving in Germany

Lidl is following the lead of Edeka and Rewe in launching a full online offer and is the first of the discounters to offer fresh food through this channel. Kaufland, which is owned by the Schwarz Group (which also owns Lidl), has also recently announced a move into online, with a full grocery offer available in Berlin since last month. Following a successful launch, it will be expanding the offer to Hamburg and plans to expand this further in the future. With Amazon Fresh expected to soon enter the market, retailers in Germany are starting to respond more seriously to the online threat.

Lidl's offer extending into fresh

Lidl is investing heavily in online and will increase its offer to include a range of fresh products, including fresh fruit, vegetables and frozen products. Previously, the discounter offered only non-food items online, including electronics and clothing. This is similar to what rival Aldi and other discounters such as Norma offer. Lidl's online food range will initially be offered in Berlin from December, with expansion expected to follow in the future. Initially the retailer will only offer a pick up option, with customers able to collect their orders in-store. It is not certain whether they will offer home delivery in the future.

Will this expand to the UK?

Lidl currently does not operate in the online channel in the UK, unlike rival Aldi which started selling non-food and wine online earlier this year. With the UK online market being more mature than Germany, testing in the latter is a potentially clever way of perfecting the offer before introducing it to the UK. There is clear potential for introduction to the UK in the future.