Lidl drops online food sales and per-kilo pricing

Lidl stops selling food online and removes per-kilo price from offers

Can you buy groceries at Lidl online? No. This is not a minor detail: while Alcampo, Carrefour, Dia, and Eroski deliver shopping baskets to homes—with varying coverage by zip code, minimum order amounts, and variable costs—the German chain only sells tools, appliances, and clothing via its website. Not even non-perishable food. Not nuts. Not canned fish, even if they appear in the digital catalog. This is the first piece of a pattern that goes beyond e-commerce.

The second issue concerns pricing. Weekly offer emails sent to registered customers have stopped displaying the final price per kilo. Previously, they showed the original amount, discount percentage, and final price per weight unit. Now, only the final package price appears. To know the cost per kilo, users must visit the website, search for the product, and verify it. In the case of discounted almonds, the search did not return the item. The customer loses the data needed for comparison.

Self-checkout and broken app

The chain pushes customers toward self-checkout lanes. Some prefer human cashiers, not just out of preference but because it supports employment. The discount app, launched to build loyalty, stopped working on some phones after an update. Affected users are unlikely to change devices for a supermarket app. It is not an isolated case: in-store staff already know about the glitch and ask for phone numbers to apply discounts manually during checkout.

Calculation error exposes brochure flaws

Things get complicated with printed brochures. A 200-gram pack of almonds dropped from €2.25 to €1.89. According to the brochure, the price per kilo fell from €11.24 to €1.75. This figure is impossible; the actual price per kilo is €9.45. The error is not rounding—it is a two-order-of-magnitude slip that highlights poor quality control in commercial information.

Discounts on potatoes and bananas, not premium items

The third issue involves product selection. Weekly discounts focus on low-priced fruits and tubers, where differences between chains are minimal. Consumers want savings on expensive items: nuts, fish, meat. That is where real savings occur. There is a widespread perception that offer quality has declined and that the chain has given up competing on price in key categories.

The model: drive store visits and impulse buys

The lack of online grocery sales is not a technical oversight but a strategy. Shoppers who visit stores spend more time, browse the bazaar section, and add unplanned items to their carts. Digital shopping, by contrast, is fixed. Other retailers use similar logic, raising delivery fees to encourage in-store visits. The downside is abandoning a channel competitors already exploit.

Product quality and generational shift

The fourth issue relates to assortment. Products once exclusive—German imports, eco-friendly items—have been replaced by manufacturers supplying any local supermarket. Downward standardization affects seafood and meat counters: everything tastes the same and lacks flavor. The chain remains strong in hardware and tools, where value-for-money stays competitive. In food, the cheap-supermarket narrative is increasingly hard to sustain.

Per-kilo price: mandatory on shelves, missing in emails

In-store, per-kilo pricing is mandatory and displayed. Regulations also require this data in brochures and commercial communications. Removing it from weekly emails is not an oversight but a decision that reduces customer information. It was initially included. Omitting it hinders comparisons across chains and formats. Without this data, discounts seem larger than they actually are.

Customers leaving

The result is lost trust leading to fewer purchases. The chain retains shoppers for hardware but loses ground in grocery baskets. Meanwhile, competitors strengthen home delivery and transparent pricing. Lidl has not fallen behind accidentally; it chose to stay there.