This year, families changed kitchens into schools, bedrooms into workplaces and backyards into amusement parks, and furniture and interiors giant Ikea has reaped the economic benefits. Online sales increased 45% this year, and the company was able to expand into three new e-commerce markets, including China.
“These are uncertain times. We’re all more careful with our wallets, and we’re spending more time in our homes. Our passion at Ikea is to help the many with functional home furnishing solutions at affordable prices,” said Inter Ikea Group CEO Jon Abrahamsson Ring. “Low price is more important than ever, and our lowest-price segment accounted for more than half of Ikea retail sales this summer. Making Ikea even more affordable is continuously one of our biggest opportunities for the future.”
The Ikea website also welcomed four billion visits.
“The Ikea website, stores and other locations complement each other to create a great customer experience all the way around. We’re pleased about online sales growth, but also very happy that customers still love our stores. People want to touch and try our products or get personal help. As a result, we welcomed 825 million visitors to stores and opened 33 new locations this year,” said Ring.
Ikea continued work to reduce the climate footprint and pledged to invest EUR 200 million in renewable energy and responsible forestry.
“IKEA makes the biggest impact by offering products that are both affordable and sustainable. For example, I’m extremely proud of our new plant-based ‘meat’ ball, which tastes great and has a really good price. But its climate footprint is just 4% of the traditional IKEA meatball,” said Ring.
Together these efforts led to total FY20 IKEA retail sales of EUR 39.6 billion by IKEA franchisees, compared to EUR 41.3 billion in FY19 (including sales of products and services).
“That’s less than last year, but retail sales recovered quickly. And online sales remain high even as stores re-open. Going forward, we’ll continue our work to satisfy and exceed customer expectations in existing stores every day, as well as to innovate new solutions for a better IKEA,” added Ring.
