Ikea India expects its sales in North India to grow at an above-normal pace over the next two years, driven by strong demand for home decoration and kitchen products. Bhavana Jaiswal, country e-commerce manager, and Jasmeet Sood, country home furnishing & retail design manager, discuss the company’s strategy, upcoming stores, and market outlook with Raghav Aggarwal. Excerpts:
Why did Ikea choose an online-first approach in India?
India is a highly digital-savvy market. Customers here are used to shopping online, so it made sense for us to launch e-commerce first. Stores will come, and we are committed to an omnichannel approach, but this helps familiarise customers with our range and builds loyalty early. It also allows us to understand local preferences and tailor our physical stores accordingly.
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Delhi-NCR is India’s largest home furnishing market and a critical region for us. While it’s difficult to put an exact figure on it, we expect above-normal and exponential growth in sales over the next two years.
Would you consider selling through platforms like Amazon or Flipkart?
Not at this stage. Ikea focuses on offering home furnishing solutions, not just standalone products. Our stores showcase complete room setups, and we replicate that online. Many of our products are designed as systems — storage solutions, for example, come with accessories tailored to fit perfectly. That level of integration is hard to achieve in a marketplace.
With faster deliveries becoming the norm, how is Ikea adapting?
We follow a ‘never say never’ approach. Initially, delivery from Pune to Bengaluru took 7–8 days. Now, it’s down to two days in Bengaluru and Mumbai, and in Delhi, we’re working towards next-day delivery. We’re achieving this by using retail stores as fulfillment centers and optimising our logistics network. Traditionally, furniture deliveries take two weeks due to storage challenges, but our flat-packed products enable faster dispatch.
Has your approach to store sizes changed?
Yes, we are adopting multiple formats. A typical Ikea store is about 30,000 sq meters, but now we have compact formats. Smaller stores (around 1,000 sq meters) allow us to be closer to customers, and studios (as small as 500 sq meters) cater to specialised needs like kitchen and wardrobe design by appointment.
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