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Ikea furnishes customers with online shopping
Swedish retailer gets with the times

By Gemma Simpson

Published: Tuesday 10 October 2006

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.