Furniture retailer Ikea is planning to expand its online business, according to an interview with its chief executive in the Financial Times.
Ikea is to invest in its online shopping offering with a bigger product range and reduced distribution costs, said its CEO recently.
The Swedish retailer currently has a limited Internet shopping offer in a quarter of the 40 markets it operates in. Mikael Ohlsson, chief executive of Ikea, told the Financial Times that the retailer planned to have an eCommerce offering in most of its markets by the end of the decade. He also hinted that the company was close to finding a more competitively priced distribution system.
“We will continue to develop the online offering over the next few years,” he said. “The challenge for us is we want to have an affordable logistics solution. We could hook on eCommerce to store distribution – it is under development.” He added that the company felt that it had more steps to take before launching the online service globally.
Expanding its web presence into more markets will allow the retailer to carry out extensive competitor monitoring on price online for these markets.With highly competitive markets being characterised by intense price competition, the dynamic price intelligence will help to grow sales and profit margins in these locations.
Ikea’s Internet sales jumped by 25 per cent last year in the UK – the retailer increased the number of items on offer by a third to 6,000 during 2011.
© 2012 Profitero
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Pricing intelligence company Profitero works with retailers and manufacturers to help them increase sales and maximise their profits by using competitor price, promotions and stock information at scale. For more information on Profitero price intelligence and competitor monitoring, visit www.profitero.com or email sales@profitero.com.
