Ikea announces fifth consecutive year of sales growth
Published: 29 November 2016 - Jenny Wonnacott
Ikea UK has revealed that sales reached £1.72bn, an increase of 8.9% for the year to August 31, 2016
Sales soared at Ikea this year, helped in part by the opening of its new store in Reading
Market share for the home furnishing retailer grew by 0.5% to 8.2% without any new channels. Growth was "driven by investment in existing stores, a focus on affordable, well-designed products and significant investment in co-workers."
Growth in both sales and market share continues the company's progress towards its goal of doubling the size of its UK business by 2020.
Ikea UK country retail manager Gillian Drakeford said, "Achieving our fifth consecutive year of growth is something we’re extremely proud of and demonstrates the success of our values-driven business, commitment to our people, the planet and our customers.”
According to the retailer, growth has "been driven by a focus on improving its multichannel shopping experience, enhancing existing stores and making Ikea more accessible by opening a new store in Reading and trialling four of the new 'Order and Collection' Point formats."
Online sales continued to grow, with a 31% uplift for the 2016 financial year, following double digit growth the previous year.
Ms Drakeford added, "As part of our ambition to become a truly multichannel retailer, we launched a new website to provide an improved online experience for our customers as well as further connecting the online and offline channels”, said Gillian. “Our stores and website have a different, although integrated, role to play. Our customers are increasingly using both channels to complete their purchasing journey so we’ve focused on ensuring this experience is as seamless as possible.”
“Our online business now makes up 13.4% of our overall sales. In addition to this, we still see an increase in people coming to our stores (+3%) in visitors over the past year.
“We want to make sure that IKEA is accessible, so that more people can create a better everyday life at home. In July, we opened our first new IKEA store in the UK for seven years in Reading and we look forward to opening in Sheffield in 2017.”
Ikea is also trialling a new format in the UK and opened four ‘Order and Collection’ Points (Aberdeen in May; Birmingham Central and Westfield Stratford City in August; Norwich in November), helping to bring IKEA closer to more people.