What is IKEA? IKEA Review

IKEA is a Swedish furniture store and a multinational private home furnishings retail company. IKEA is a leading brand that pioneered the sale of self-assembled furniture at affordable prices and is currently the world's largest furniture retailer.

Origin of the name "IKEA"

The Chinese word “宜家” is not only a homonym of IKEA, but also refers to the idiom “宜室宜家” to express bringing a harmonious and happy life to the family.

About IKEA

IKEA was founded in Sweden in 1943. "Creating a better everyday life for the majority of people" has been the direction that IKEA has been working towards since its founding. The IKEA brand has always been associated with improving people's quality of life, and adheres to the business purpose of "providing as many customers as possible with affordable, well-designed, fully functional and low-priced household products that they can afford." While providing a wide variety of beautiful, practical and affordable household products for ordinary people, IKEA strives to create a business model centered on customer and social interests, and is committed to environmental protection and social responsibility issues.

The Swedish IKEA Group has sold goods worth 186 million euros online in the German market, accounting for 4.3% of the IKEA Group's total sales. IKEA's overall online sales growth rate is higher than traditional offline business, up 20.4% year-on-year, of which the German e-commerce market accounts for 16% of IKEA's total online revenue.

Main Products

IKEA is a multinational home furnishings retail company based in Sweden, with branches in many countries around the world, selling flat-packed furniture, accessories, bathroom and kitchen supplies. It mainly includes seating/sofa series, office supplies, bedroom series, kitchen series, lighting series, textiles, cookware series, house storage series, children's products series and other products.

IKEA Market

All of IKEA's current online markets are shown in the figure below (if you want to know the specific country market, you can visit the official website and click to view):

IKEA China

IKEA opened its first store in China in 1998. Its marketing performance in China over the years is as follows:

Product: highlight product characteristics and strengthen brand image. Mainly focus on product design diversification and personalization, maintain and give full play to the company's inherent design advantages; strengthen quality inspection and supervision, ensure product safety and quality; speed up the pace of new product development to meet the target market demand to the greatest extent.

In terms of price: reduce costs by optimizing company management, reducing procurement links, strengthening cost control, etc., adjust prices and product structures appropriately according to the actual situation of the Chinese consumer market, and provide more high-quality and low-cost products for the Chinese market.

In terms of channels: make full use of IKEA (China)'s numerous supply bases and strong distribution network, effectively allocate supplies, reduce distribution links, and gradually increase direct stores in the Chinese market, open new stores in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Tianjin, Dalian and other cities, and prepare to establish stores in major cities such as Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Chongqing, and Changchun.

Promotion: Expand corporate visibility through online product catalogs, in-store promotions, social public relations activities, etc., and establish and consolidate the image of an internationally renowned furniture company.

How to log in to IKEA for the first time

IKEA members or members who have forgotten their password: Go to the login page, click "Forgot password", and then enter the email address or mobile phone number reserved for the membership card. The system will send your password to the reserved email address or text message to the reserved mobile phone.

If you are not an IKEA member: You need to register an IKEA official website account using your mobile phone number and email address. The account registered in the original IKEA Shanghai online mall cannot be used directly on the official website, please re-register. Some original IKEA official website accounts have expired due to long-term inactivity, please re-register. Please fill in the correct common email address when registering, and IKEA will send the electronic cash receipt of the IKEA online mall order to the registered email address via email.

Payment methods supported by IKEA

IKEA offline stores accept cash, Alipay, WeChat Pay, savings cards and credit cards with UnionPay, VISA and MASTER logos, Apple Pay, same-city transfer checks, and IKEA shopping cards and return cards.

IKEA online store accepts Alipay, WeChat, and UnionPay payments.

Development History

-In 1943, Ingvar Kamprad founded IKEA.

-In 1945, IKEA's first advertisement appeared in a local newspaper.

-In 1947, IKEA furniture was introduced into the IKEA product range.

-In 1951, the first IKEA catalogue was published.

-In 1955, IKEA began designing its own furniture.

-In 1956, IKEA began experimenting with flat-pack packaging.

-In 1963, the first IKEA store in Norway opened on the outskirts of Oslo.

-In 1965, the first IKEA store opened in Stockholm.

-In 1973, the first shopping mall outside Northern Europe opened on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland.

-In 1974, the first IKEA store in Germany opened in Munich.

-In 1985, the first IKEA store opened in the United States.

-1997: IKEA introduces IKEA for children. The first version of the IKEA website is launched.

-In 1998, the first IKEA store opened in China.

-In 1999, IKEA had 53,000 employees in 150 stores in 29 countries on four continents.

-In 2001, IKEA established its own railway company and IKEA Rail began operations.

-In fiscal year 2003, IKEA achieved sales revenue of 11 billion euros and net profit of more than 1.1 billion euros, becoming the world's largest home furnishings retailer.

-In 2005, IKEA ranked 42nd among the world's top 500 companies.

-As of December 2008, IKEA has 292 large stores in 36 countries and regions around the world (258 of which are solely owned by the IKEA Group and 34 are franchised).

-On June 6, 2012, IKEA Wuxi store opened, bringing the number of IKEA retail stores in mainland China to 11, and the required storage capacity has expanded to more than 300,000 cubic meters.

-In fiscal year 2014, IKEA's sales reached 28.7 billion euros, almost double its sales in 2005.

-In September 2017, IKEA announced the launch of the IKEA Place App. If consumers want to know how IKEA sofas, armchairs, coffee tables or other furniture will look in their own homes, they can just take out their iPhone to take a picture of the space where the furniture is placed, and then scan the AR-enabled products in the paper catalog to use AR technology to place the products in the photo.