By Gemma Simpson, 10 October 2006 17:05
NEWS
If the thought of spending the weekend fighting your way around Ikea fills you with horror, then relax: the flat-pack giant is launching an online store.
Despite the success of Ikea's bricks-and-mortar stores, the Swedish home furnishings giant has yet to open an online alternative.
An Ikea spokesman said the online shop is expected to open at the end of next year, following trials of the website this spring in the Nottingham area.
The flat-pack behemoth expects to see only around five or six per cent of sales coming through the internet, according to a report in The Times.
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The retailer is already testing its IT platform and payment modules and building its transportation network to support online sales, the paper said.
Ikea hopes the online service will ease congestion in its stores. The spokesman said it has not yet finalised pricing for home delivery.
Comments
There are 6 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ian Paterson
Billy the bookcase arriving in Tommy the truck driven by Bob the driver?
Makes me laugh to think of a Swedish man in dungarees sporting a bad moustache knocking on your door and saying "I have a big delivery for you, yes?"
Seriously though, I have recently been on the receiving end of Ikea 'customer service' and it took 3 weeks and 2 or 3 phone calls a day to try and get a delivery. In the end I had to go to the store and sort the paperwork myself to get it delivered. Useless.
2. Chris Wood
Ordering online and by telephone has been available for some time in the rest of Europe; we have used the IKEA telephone service in Mallorca and its excellent, no more queuing with ten trolley loads of items at the check out and then again at home delivery! Why has it taken so long to set this up in the UK?
3. Julian G Hicks
Why on earth are Ikea only doing this now...and why do we have to wait till the end of NEXT year?
4. anonymous
Can I buy...
... a virtual Billy Bookcase to store my PDFs on?
5. anonymous
Online shopping from IKEA has been available in France for a couple of years. However, not all goods are available (especially not small items). I tried it once, for some beds but ....... they were out of stock!
6. Bob
As anyone knows it takes well over 12 months to buy some vans and employ some delivery drivers! Just ask the fella who puts the 'man and a van' leaflets under your windscreen wipers, he didn't just come up with the idea one week and start it the next, oh no, took at least a year!
Or maybe they've been trying desperately to outsource it all to India, it does take quite some time to drive all the vans from over there.