Swedish flat-pack giant Ikea has had a strong year with an increased portion of consumers visiting the stores online. The company will continue to invest in expansion and renewable energy, as well as in affordable prices.
Emission-free deliveries
Ikea’s largest franchisee, Ingka Group, saw its sales rise by 5.7 % from 39.5 billion euros to 41.7 billion euros in its 2023 financial year. This growth was partly due to the opening of sixty new stores, including in Copenhagen, Madrid and San Francisco. The number of physical shop visits increased by 7 %, the share of online visits in the total number of visits rose from 25 to 26 %.
The retailer, which is celebrating its eightieth anniversary, is going to ramp up investment in some of its biggest markets, with 4.5 billion euros to spend in the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Spain alone. Ingka Group will also invest 6.5 billion euros in renewable energy, of which almost four billion has already been invested. A quarter of orders worldwide are already delivered to homes emission-free.
Betting on lower prices
In the Netherlands, Ikea’s sales grew from 1.37 to 1.64 billion euros, a growth of 19.7 % compared to 2022. Physical shop visits increased by 22.1 %, but 28 % of Dutch sales came from online sales – down 2.9 %. Ikea invested heavily in wages: in the past year, Dutch employees gained at least 13 %.
“To keep our offer affordable for as many people as possible, we are now investing heavily in bringing down the prices of our popular products – with a focus on storage products. For us, affordability is a top priority – so we will continue to focus firmly on this in the coming period”, CFO Sandra Schouten said.
Belgian sales rose by 16 % to 1.208 billion euros. That growth came from strongly increasing sales of kitchens (+ 12 %) and food (+ 29 %) and via click&collect (+ 97 %). Next year, Ikea will invest thirty million euros in Belgium, mainly in sustainability and omnichannel solutions. Further price cuts are also on the cards here.
