As Ikea announces a further round of price cuts ahead of the Easter holidays, the RetailX UK Top500 2024 report looks at how affordability and sustainable living are at the centre of both its strategy and website.
The homewares giant, this year ranked Elite, sources 100% of its UK electricity comes from renewables. It notes that 32% of its 2023 sales were “people and planet positive”. These include 52,380 products sold through its buy back and resell scheme (+187% on 2022).
Ikea, founded in Älmhult, Sweden in 1943, is now a global retail brand. The first UK Ikea store opened in Warrington in 1987 and there are now 23 across the UK.
In the year to August 2023, the global Ikea business turned over €47.6bn, with 74% of sales taking place in store, 23% online and 3% through services. Online sales grew by 19% in value compared to the previous year. In the UK alone, Ikea’s turnover reached £2.46bn – +11.9% on the previous year – with 38% of its sales taking place online.
Read more: Ikea UK passing on £100mn in purchasing costs savings to customers
Visitors to Ikea’s UK website can find products through dropdown search suggestions, or through a navigation that supports browsing by product type or by room, or filtering by size, product type, colour and materials.
From the category page, shoppers can add an item directly to a basket or wishlist. On the product page, they can see images, product videos and an explanation of how an item works. Reviews and ratings – by ease of assembly, value for money, quality and appearance – are shown. Recommendations of similar and complementary products are shown at each stage.
Visitors can add their postcode to see personalised delivery details, such as whether an item is in stock locally and how quickly it can be delivered. Collection from Ikea’s UK stores grew by 48% in its last financial year, while it is also working with Tesco to roll out supermarket collections, and with Shift on mobile collection. Ikea has introduced free delivery of small parcels when shoppers spend £60 or more, as well as premium delivery options and a 365-day returns policy. Shoppers do not have to register to check out and payment methods include Apple Pay and PayPal.
The Ikea company profile is just one in the the RetailX UK Top500 2024 report. Amazon, Next, Asda, Dunelm, Boden, Richer Sounds and Very are all profiled in this tenth edition.
The research measures performance according to how retailers, brands and marketplaces add value to their businesses through the Customer, Product, Operations and Capital Value Chains.
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