Ikea starts selling its products online to customers in Gujarat

NEW DELHI: Ikea has started selling its products online to customers in Gujarat, the third Indian state after Telangana and Maharashtra where the Swedish giant is home delivering products ordered on its webstore.

Ikea is servicing online clients in Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, according to its website.

“Hej, Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara, you can shop online now,” a message reads on the Ikea India website. “You can now shop your heart out online!”

With the e-commerce expansion to Gujarat, Ikea is currently servicing six cities in India including Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune.

“As a next step towards creating more accessibility for many more people, Ikea India has initiated a pilot project to expand its online presence to other Indian cities starting with Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat,” Ikea said in a statement.

To begin with the world’s largest furniture and home products retailer will only ship smaller items and restrict its shipments in those cities to about 20 kilograms.

“In this first phase, customers from these cities will be able to shop for close to 5,500 home furnishing products that will be delivered through parcels and small packages that weigh up to 20 kgs,” the Ikea statement further said.

Meanwhile, Ikea plans to roll out its second India store in Navi Mumbai in the next two weeks.

The 500,000 sq ft new stores, located on the Thane-Belapur Road in Navi Mumbai, will stock more than 7,000 different furniture and home items among various other household products that the Swedish giant is famous for worldwide.

Ikea, part of Ingka Group, made its India debut in Hyderabad in August 2018. In addition to the sprawling store in Navi Mumbai, Ikea also plans two smaller version outlets in the range of about 50,000 sq ft in either malls or in high streets within Mumbai city.

The smaller stores are part of Ikea’s plans to focus on omni-channel amid a changing consumer behaviour that is increasingly shifting towards online shopping and omni-channel retailing.

Last month, Juvencio Maeztu, Ingka Group’s deputy CEO told ET that the world’s largest furniture retailer will open two smaller stores in Mumbai next year, followed by such outlets in Delhi NCR and Bengaluru in coming years.

Ikea has already rolled out its smaller High Street store concept in Paris, Tokyo and Shanghai among other cities in a bid to offer better accessibility to consumers in city centres as the younger generations are increasingly becoming wary to travel distances to reach retail stores.