Ikea Group plans to resume online rollout after yearlong pause

Ikea Group plans to extend the reach of its online business to all its markets within the next few years as the world's largest furniture retailer resumes expansion after a 12-month pause.

Ikea hasn't added to the 13 countries in which it offers Web shopping over the last year, though still harbors an ambition to reach all 27 in which it has stores, the company said today after reporting a 3 percent gain in full-year sales.

The focus over the past year has been on improving the online offer in existing markets, Chief Executive Officer Peter Agnefjaell said in a telephone interview. Critics have argued that the retailer's approach to online expansion has been too conservative since it opened www.ikea.com in 1997.

"Ikea was slow to embrace the online channel, but has been investing heavily over the past couple of years," said Maureen Hinton, an analyst at researcher Conlumino in London. "Integrating an online offer, meeting the expectations of the modern online shopper, keeping prices low and making a profit is not easy for big ticket items, so it is understandable that it is honing its service before rolling it out to all markets."

Ikea's business model is less suited to online selling than for many retailers, as it has mostly relied on shoppers driving to its out-of-town outlets, collecting purchases themselves from warehouses, and spending time figuring out how to transfer flat- packs into furniture.

Maze-Like Stores

The model has allowed the retailer to keep prices low, while also making money by tempting customers to pick up items such as Jubla candles and Fantastisk paper napkins when navigating through the aisles of its maze-like stores. Ikea is also cashing in on Swedish meatballs at its in-store restaurants and on purchases of jars of lingonberry jam at its Swedish food markets in outlets across the world.

Attracting more Web visitors and having more products available for purchase at existing online shops helped Ikea's sales increase to 28.7 billion euros ($37 billion) in the 12 months through August, the retailer said today in a statement. Its box-like stores had 716 million visitors during the year, while 1.5 billion people visited the retailer's websites.

Ikea Group, which with 315 outlets owns the majority of the world's Ikea stores, is seeking to double sales by 2020 by improving stores, opening new outlets, expanding the online offer and introducing new collections more frequently.

The flat-pack furniture retailer's same-store sales gained 3.6 percent in the year. Growth was fastest in China, while North America continued to perform well and Europe improved.