Aldi shoppers ‘buck the trend’, love store brands

ARE Aldi shoppers actually different from Coles or Woolworths customers? Yes, in one significant way, according to new research.

Why Aldi shoppers are different

ARE Aldi shoppers actually different from Coles or Woolworths customers? Yes, in one significant way, according to new research by Roy Morgan.

While nearly half (47 per cent) of Australia’s 14 million grocery buyers say they will go out of their way for a bargain, 70 per cent stick to their favourite brands for most products they buy and just 38 per cent buy more store-brand products than well-known brands.

But customers of Aldi “buck this trend dramatically”, with 63 per cent saying they buy more store-brand products.

Aldi customers are also far less likely than people who shop at Coles and Woolworths to trust well-known brands better than store brands, or have favourite brands which they stick to.

It therefore comes as no surprise that a much greater proportion (60 per cent) of Aldi shoppers are willing to go out of their way for a bargain than Coles (46 per cent), Woolworths/Safeway (47 per cent) and Foodland (40 per cent) customers, the company said.

“Over the last five years, the proportion of grocery buyers who say they buy more stores’-own products than well-known brands has remained static,” said Roy Morgan’s Angela Smith.

“Australians are not becoming more open to them: on the contrary, trust of well-known brands over stores’-own has grown slightly since 2010, as has the proportion of grocery buyers who tend to stick with their favourite brands for most things they buy.

“Grocery buyers who usually shop at Aldi are a striking exception, being keen bargain-hunters and prolific consumers of stores’-own products. A product’s brand or label is less likely to be a conscious factor in their purchasing decisions.”

With both Coles and Woolworths outlining plans to improve and expand their store-brand offerings, these findings “indicate that they have their work cut out for them”.

“Grocery-buyers who usually shop there are less likely than Aldi and Coles customers to buy primarily stores’-own products. On the other hand, they are considerably less brand-fixated than shoppers who usually get their groceries from Foodland,” Ms Smith said.

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