Dive Brief:

• After surveying 40,000 customers, Aldi announced its fan favorite items for 2019 featuring 23 products from categories across the store, according to a press release. Items range from grab-and-go and organic produce to cheese and wine.
• Specific products include Aldi's private label Happy Farms String Cheese, Simply Nature Organic Chicken Broth and Simply Nature Organic Spices. All 23 fan favorites will now be marked on store shelves with a blue heart-shaped logo starting this week. 
• In addition to announcing fan favorites, Aldi's Tampa store is adding imported German foods like Deutsche Kuche German style pickles, a variety of imported strudel, pork schnitzel and cream cakes to celebrate Oktoberfest.

Dive Insight:

Both its private label offerings and the addition of imported products from Germany suggest that Aldi is trying to differentiate through merchandising, tapping into its unique status as a foreign grocer operating in the U.S.

The fan favorites program helps Aldi showcase its most popular products in the store, which may be new to some shoppers. A majority of Aldi's 2019 fan-favorite items are private label products, representing brands like Aldi's organic Simply Nature line, Winking Owl, Friendly Farms, Mama Cozzi's and liveGfree. In the past couple years, Aldi has racked up more than 200 private label awards, and that momentum is carrying into 2019. 

Private label for Aldi has helped boost its U.S. expansion, and co-president Brent Laubaugh told Store Brands that it's part of the grocer's DNA. In fact, 90% of the retailer's product offerings are private label, according to Brick Meets Click. 

Across retailers, sales of private label products online more than doubled over the past year, accounting for 17% of CPG sales. Shoppers are not only embracing private label products, they are demanding more premium offerings, including organic. 

When it comes to the imported offerings, Aldi is hitting on a current consumer trend of more adventurous eating. The Food Marketing Institute’s 2019 Power of Foodservice at Retail report indicated that 88% of shoppers would like to see new items and flavors in retail foodservice. Last year, international cuisine was one of six top major food trends, according to Mintel’s 2018 U.S. Flavor Trends Report.