g out work to expand its online store. It is the case that a fifth of all Germans now use the internet to buy their groceries. The largest demographic represented among these is that of people between 30 and 40 years of age.The actress Sophia Thomalla is the new face of their cosmetics and skincare line, Cien.
Lidl is employing aggressive marketing techniques to promote its new online facilities: from 16 June onwards a TV advertisement featuring Thomalla will begin running; she will also appear in Lidl's social-media material, and in their adverts in print media.
In Ireland, Lidl's growth has been continuing steadily: double-digit sales growth figures were published last month, boosting its market share from 6.9% last year to 7.6%. It is the first time the grocery market has seen a return to growth for six months. During the recession, shoppers adopted a little-and-often buying-habit.
The latest figures show that consumers are making slightly fewer shopping trips but are buying more groceries on each occasion.
"This means bigger baskets and an increase overall of the volume of goods purchased, which has provided an €18m boost in grocery sales in this 12-week period," David Berry, commercial director of Kantar World Panel commented
Grocery inflation stood at 2.5% for the 12 weeks to the end of 27 April, up from 1.9% in the previous 12-week period.
