Ikea is growing despite Covid

Ikea has seen its global sales rise by 6.6 % in the 2020-2021 broken financial year. There was a growth of 5.8 % on the Belgian market, but in the Dutch branch of the home furnishing chain suffered from the prolonged lockdown.

Repositioning quickly

Ingka Group, the largest franchisee of the Ikea brand, recorded global sales of 37.4 billion euros between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021, up 6.3 % from a year earlier. Covid measures in many countries forced the retailer to accelerate its e-commerce efforts: stores temporarily acted partially as distribution centres and pick-up points. In addition, both the website and the app were further developed. These actions did not miss their mark, as the online share of total revenue rose from 18 % to 30 % during the past financial year.

In Belgium, revenue rose by 5.8 % to 1.01 billion euros, mainly due to an extensive focus on e-commerce. Almost 222 million euros (22.65 %) of Belgian turnover came from digital sales; compared to merely 10.8 % the year before. Due to the forced store closures and, later, the reopenings under strict conditions, footfall in the physical stores dropped by 19 % to 9.7 million.

“In a particularly challenging context for all of us, we refrained from furloughs and prioritised keeping all employees who wanted to work in employment. Our teams have shown determination, resourcefulness and enthusiasm to help our customers improve their daily lives. That is our greatest pride”, says André Schmidtgall of Ikea Belgium.

In the Netherlands, Ikea’s twelve stores remained closed for more than four months, which came with its anticipated consequences: sales fell by 9.3 % to 1.24 billion euros, but the share of e-commerce rose to no less than 38.4 %.