It may not currently provide customers with a way of ordering entire grocery deliveries via safe shopping online, but budget supermarket chain Aldi is still seeking to increase its stake in the e-commerce market via a new partnership with AO.com.

The deal will see the established online retailer offer up its delivery solutions to Aldi so that it is possible for customers to get larger items shipped to their doorstep swiftly and efficiently.

This ties in with the ‘Specialbuys’ service which Aldi offers, covering a range of product types, including fashion items, appliances and other goods which are a little large to be solely stocked and sold at its bricks and mortar outlets.

Company spokesperson David Barter said that by working together with AO it would be possible for Aldi to supply a wider range of options as part of its e-commerce service, which is good news for customers and potentially a problem for its established embattled rivals.

Aldi recently reported that its sales in the UK were up by over a tenth in the past year, hitting £11.3 billion, according to Internet Retailing. It may have seen profits slide by almost a fifth in the same period, but this is largely as a result of its aggressive campaign of price cutting and its efforts to spend money on improving its infrastructure, as evidenced by this partnership amongst other schemes.

While it may currently be making a splash in the e-commerce market, Aldi is not only focusing on digital expansion. It has confirmed that in the next half decade it will open up over 300 new stores across the country, bringing the total to 1200 and cementing its position alongside incumbent competitors such as Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Budget chains like Aldi and Lidl have gained traction thanks to the economic uncertainty of the past decade, and online expansion will only help further their cause.