Comparative Analysis: Lidl v/s K-CityMarket

Finland’s top major supermarket chain stores, Lidl(a german international supermarket discount chain) and K-citymarket (a purely Finnish chain)may seem on the outside as ordinary grocery stores but the truth is, there is a vast difference between both of these giants in terms of both quality of service and product. The competition is massive among the two, but a closer look at them will give the customer a whole new perspective.

We will soon discover together that success takes much more than setting up and maintaining a supermarket giant, yet it purely boils down to quality customer experience.

A Glimpse on Finnish Innovation

Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, renowned for its breathtaking nature, top-notch education, and innovative business ideas such as Nokia. According to a recent statistic by Bloomberg Innovation Index, Finland currently ranks the 7th most innovative country in the world. Finland is a small country with a population is 5.518 million.

Let's have a look at the major aspects that make up the chain in order to break this up and understand it easier.

Business Ideas

Both Lidl & K-City Market offer similar benefits to their customers:

• A wide variety of products that customers need to stock up and maintain their personal and home needs from clothing, grocery items, an essential technology for the maintenance of their home.

Target Customers

Customers of both stores are mainly families and couples looking for a one-time visit to the store to grab their needs from one place from lighting to groceries and essential clothing that needs to be replaced every now and then, such as socks, pants, and hats. There is a variety of customers visiting both stores from elders to young people, yet mainly families tend to visit the most.

Checkout Options

• K-CityMarket has both self-service and checkout. This saves both time and effort from both the customer and staff.
• Lidl offers only checkout services at this time. Therefore, you would be more likely to find it understaffed with a longer delay and waiting time to be served.

Image

City market image aims for diversity and professionality, whilst Lidl’s image strives for speed and affordability. Speed is emphasized in Lidle, as in grab what you need and purchase competitively affordable products.

However, recently, K-CityMarket has upscaled in a massive way in terms of competitive prices and services despite what Lidl originally stood for.

Product Range

It is typical to find a range of products at each store that is similar in nature.

However, K-CityMarket excels at offering more diverse international products and a range of options for those with specific eating habits and preferences such as gluten and lactose-free, keto choices as well as kosher and halal poultry in specific cases.

There is even an option to request what you need which can be taken seriously based on demand and taken to higher management to be looked into. This drastically improves customer experience and trust as the customer feels heard and understood, and they are more likely to develop a positive relationship with the store.

There is a better opportunity to stock local small business products in K-CityMarket as they strive for renewal and an updated look to their product lines. They even have tester tables at the dairy section where specific products from brands can be tested out by customers before purchasing. These options do not exist in Lidl.

Lidl offers more regular grocery items that are mostly mantúfactured throughout Europe and in most cases stock a few product lines from selected brands. Less local items are stocked in Lidl, which further emphasizes to customers Lidl’s lack of support for local businesses.

Pricing & Affordability

Lidl aims for affordability since it has launched. The price is somewhat affordable, yet K-CityMarket has recently scaled its efforts to provide competitive pricing for grocery items which are in most cases lower by a few cents than what Lidl offers.

Both stores are affordable yet K-CityMarket is more low price, more diversity in the product range, and higher quality.

Availability

There are specific areas where products are organized in both stores based on categories that are similar.

However, K-CityMarket offers more diversity in its choice of products that it stocks. Lidl opts for a more minimalistic approach to its choice of products.

Purchasing from Lidl is made from the checkout served by a staff member, while K-CityMarket has an option of both the staff served checkout and the self-served (under the rule that payment is made in bank card for a self-served checkout) K-CityMarket utilizes modern technology to save both the time and energy of the customer and staff member.

Communication

Both stores advertise in a paper-based catalog that is distributed locally to customers living in the region. Also, specials are placed on banners throughout the website.

In Lidl, they also advertise through their newly formed app which gives you credits based on items that you purchase.

Concepts

Both stores are located in specific areas throughout Finland. They are a chain-run business. My preferred location is Lielahti which offers both K-CityMarke and Lidl closer in distance to each other which makes weekly shopping easier.

Customers are guided easily to the stores through instruction and a large entrance door. In front of both stores, there is a large parking space as well as a bus stop which makes it easily accessible to those using public transport.

At this point, there is no online shopping or home delivery for both stores.

Opening Times

• K-CityMarket is open from 8am till 10pm.
• Lidl opens from 8am till 9pm

Advertising

In regards to external advertising, both stores have large banners both outside and inside their entrance door to market specific items that are either on sale or newly added.

Lidl’s store-based window also features advertising of banners and selected products that are always updated to suit the changing seasons and events.

However, K-CityMarket does not feature advertising on its windows, especially in the Lielahti branch you are unable to see the store through its windows since it's quite dark from the inside view as an outside customer.

Staff

Both stores are run by actively working staff who either present themselves at the checkout or exist throughout the store.

Staff in both stores are not located in the front door and there is no greeting of the customer as you will likely find the staff located in different areas.

You are able to ask them as they are always around and restocking products.

However, Lidl has a smaller space and the staff in Lidl serve more as a distraction to the customer than they are of help since they seem to always schedule their major moving of items during the store peak hours. This delays customer movement with the store, making it seem like a battle between the customer and staff member who gets through the product section faster.

It is better if staff in Lidl can slow down their major restocking actions after a specific time or just before the store closes.

Lidl Customer Route

The space in both stores is organized differently.

In Lidl, you enter the store and are faced with grocery products such as fresh vegetables and fruit, sided with two walls filled with bread and cereals. As you exit the fresh food section, you are greeted with their bakery section featuring sweet and savory baked goods and then make your way to freshly prepared sandwiches and poultry across the back wall.

As you make your way across these you are faced with a range of dairy products, then the freezer section takes the whole sideway wall and lastly, you have the laundry cleaning section. In between, you have about 4 categories of products that fill the store starting with baby and hygiene products to your right then drinks in the second category, followed by pasta and sweets, and then back to cereals which lead you to the entrance point.

In between the cereals and drink you have a small category of technology-related items that are needed for daily living such as headphones followed by simple clothing such as pants and socks along with minimalistic pots and pans. The cashiers are located on the front wall on your left side as you enter the store.

City Market Customer Route

In K-CityMarket, you enter the store and are faced with skincare products to your front, cashiers on your right, home products on your far right, and technology-related products on your far right.

Different to Lidl as you have freedom in movement and easy access to major categories of the store without having to go around the whole store. As you exit the skincare section you are greeted with their discount section on your left featuring all discounts relating to skincare and home items then you find men's clothing on your far left followed by women's and children's clothing as well as shoes on your far right.

As you move along the clothing section you are guided straight to the grocery fresh veggie and fruit section on your far right and the technology and machinery section on your left. As you look ahead you see sections of walls dedicated to food items such as cereals, pasta, sweets in the middle of the store.

On the back wall, you find a huge wall covered with yogurt, milk, and dairy followed by the freezer section and poultry. As you exit the freezer section, you are greeted by the self-serving checkouts and the staff served checkouts as well as the small card and plant section in front of the checkout.

Store Equipment

Both stores feature a range of equipment to showcase their products from huge wall-covered shelves to tables in the center of the store.

Products and prices are easy to spot and locate.

Both stores are always clean from a hygiene perspective. However, Lidl seems messy in regards to extra products that continuously seem to be restocked even when there is no clear lack of that product.

Lighting

K-CityMarket uses better and brighter lighting than Lidl. In most cases, Lidl has a dimmer lighting system as well as a systematic organized approach to products which encourages a down-to-earth simpler approach to shopping, whilst K-CityMarket is vibrant and energetic based on the layout of the store as well as how the entrance to multiple categories is organized.

Lidl uses blue and yellow, with a slight tint of red whilst K-CityMarket uses black, white, and red.

Sales/Loyalty Program

Both stores offer multiple sales and discounts every week which is advertised mainly through their paper-based catalog as well as throughout the store.

In regards to the loyalty program, K-CityMarket started with a strong loyalty program, offering customers a physical branded card that allows them specific discounts as well as reimbursement for the accumulation of purchases, such as if they made about 200 euro worth of purchased they would receive 5 euro discount which can be used in their next purchase.

Recently, a few months ago, Lidl has introduced its first loyalty program but it's mobile-based and can be accessed through their own app which customers create an account and have their purchases and points recorded for future reference.

Also, through this app, they would also get discounts for selected items.

The app works differently from K-CityMarket’s card system where customers tap the code from their phone onto the paying machine which then records their receipt and earned them both the discount and accumulated points for the purchase of that day.

Whether you are a small freelancer or a giant supermarket chain, customer experience could make or break your business.

Summary & Analysis

City market and Lidl are both similar yet there is a major gap in both the quality of the products as well as the service provided by both stores.

• Layout: K-CityMarket is easier to move to other locations of the store despite its larger space whilst Lidl decides what the customer route will be in most cases.
• Service: K-CityMarket offers an abundance of services as well as variety in the choice of the products as it caters to different customer needs and priorities.
• Quality: K-CityMarket offers higher quality friendly service and products to its customers while Lidl emphasizes a faster less direct relationship with the customer.

Disclaimer:

The above article is purely informative and displays my own personal analysis of both stores. In no way is it meant to show one store as better than the other. Moreso, it is to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each one so readers may gain an understanding of what makes a great business.

About The Author

Noor is a first-year business student at Tredu. She is passionate about marketing and content creation. She runs a holistic wellness blog and recently launched her youtube channel specializing in holistic healing.