Ikea wants to sell through third party online platforms

Swedish furniture chain Ikea wants to launch a pilot program next year, which would bring the chain’s products to third-party web shops like Amazon or Alibaba.

Increase online share

As of now, Ikea only sells its furniture and accessories on its own web shops, but it says it has noticed how the market is changing and now wants to evaluate how external sales could impact its business. It refrained from saying which third-party platforms will be used.

In its past fiscal year, Ikea’s online turnover grew 30 % to 1.4 billion euro, but that is still only a marginal part of its 34.2 billion euro overall turnover. This pilot program is to see whether it can increase its online share quickly.

Not only does it want its online share to increase, its restaurants will also become a more significant part of the group’s operations. The company wants to open its own chain of restaurants, especially since plenty of Ikea visitors only come to eat. Ikea’s food turnover, 1.7 billion euro, is even larger than its online turnover right now.