By Disha Dembla

So, what’s the whole buzz about? Just another furniture shop entering the Indian market, I feel it’s definitely more than the best collection of Swedish furniture.

A 400,000 square foot state-of-the-art concept that wanted to mark its presence in India and was struggling for almost 28 years bounded by the retail foreign ownership restriction finally launched in Hyderabad – the city of pearls, on 19th July 2018, with a layout that attracted thousands of people and was overcrowded on the inauguration day. Say hello to IKEA!.

Having a global presence in 24 countries, the IKEA chain faces no language barrier. This is because of the smart design instructions in the form of pictures that guide you to assemble your product and also give you the liberty to mix and match the parts to create your personalized creative product. Isn’t this like playing Lego, wherein you can just plug in and out any part as per your choice?

This Company that offers the best furniture along with delicious food, is also sensitive to environment sustainability. This can be seen by their unique way of delivering goods by using solar powered IKEA rickshaws – a cool way to incorporate the ethnic touch of India.

IKEA team has spent more than two years visiting Indian families to understand how they shop, what they want [Source: interview with CNN Money]. This reflects the intensity of marketing strategies that IKEA team has planned to target the moderate earning household and deliver good quality at a reasonable price.

IKEA’s presence is surely going to impact the local furniture stores but not to a great level as most of IKEA’s outlets are located on the outskirts; so the players that are located in the main markets do not suffer a lot. But, yes, IKEA does provide a unique user experience that is missing among other counterparts. People can spend their whole day in IKEA. That is the mesmerizing effect IKEA gives by means of its beautiful interiors.

With all the perks at hand, IKEA still has some major challenges to face.

• Making an online presence. With giants like Amazon and Flipkart who have already made their space here, IKEA has great competition to deal with.
• Opening other outlets in India. Will it be easy to open stores, get land permissions and most importantly the intended crowd?
[Source: https://www.livemint.com]

IKEA’s future plans – The Company has in the past announced plans to open 25 stores by 2025. It has also bought a land parcel each in Bengaluru, Mumbai and New Delhi to build stores, with more land to be acquired in cities such as Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Kolkata. [Source: Mint, April 23, 2018]

Whether IKEA in India will be a success or a failure is a matter of time.
For now, IKEA is all ready to amaze you with the best furniture, experience and price.

Are you excited to grab the best deal?

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of IndusGuru Network Partners