General director Horst Leitner
The Aldi-Süd Group is investing 1.5 billion euros in digitization, and they want to start in Austria. That's going to change.
The Aldi-Süd group, to which the local discounter Hofer belongs, is buttering 1.5 billion in a digital offensive. Austria will be the pilot country, as Hofer boss Horst Leitner revealed in a talk with the magazine “trend”.
What customers will notice first, what else is planned.
The days of paper labels are numbered. The displays are switched to digital displays. This saves employees time-consuming manual labor, and changes can be made easily at the push of a button.
We are currently looking for alternatives. Possible solutions are cell phones or self-scanning. Leitner's vision: that you no longer have to go to the checkout. For many customers, “this is the most annoying phase when shopping”. The most likely concepts are those that Amazon is testing in US supermarkets – i.e. sensors in shopping carts or cameras. You record what you are packing and automatically deduct the money.
That is also part of the offensive.
It should also go around analogously. The redesign of the markets is planned. Top topic here: Fresh items should be “very, very important” and should go straight to the entrances. According to Horst Leitner, this is an assortment that cannot easily be replaced by online trading.
