For the First Time in 77 Years, IKEA Selects 3rd Party Selling

• IKEA is said to sell its product on Alibaba’s Chinese eCommerce place Tmall.
• This is for the first time when IKEA is said to sell its products through a third party.

The news came on Tuesday. IKEA is said to be associated with Tmall in China – Alibaba’s Chinese eCommerce platform.

In IKEA’s 77-year history, 3^rd party selling is to happen for the first time. The move is aimed at reaching more shoppers in a country where shoppers have the freedom to go through its large product offerings.

“We see this as a good opportunity to become accessible for many more in China, especially in light of what the Chinese digital environment looks like. We are testing to see how does this impact our brand, how does this impact our infrastructure, our own stores, and eCommerce, do we reach new segments … and of course also what will the result look like.” – Tolga Oncu – Head of retail at Ingka, which owns most IKEA stores globally.

Why After 77 years?

Well, it is said that IKEA is now trying to utilize the rapidly changing shopping patterns, which until a decade ago majorly relied on its retro warehouse stores.

In recent times, IKEA has heavily invested in its expansion in new sales channels. The brand is now rolling out a new shopping app as well as inner-city store formats.

If 3^rd part selling of IKEA is successful, it aims to roll the Tmall store which is present in different parts of China. As of now, there are no such plans for IKEA to sell in other markets.

“In other markets, there are other conditions. So we don’t see this as a starting point for a full roll-out, or a full commitment to this type of channel.” – Jon Abrahamsson Ring – CEO at bran owner Inter IKEA

For IKEA, China is the key market for its growth and customer base. The store on Tmall will offer some 3800 of IKEA’s around 9500 products as well as allied services.

The company has approximately 30 stores in the country. More than half of its stores have been shut due to coronavirus outbreak (Even IKEA is not able to save itself from this virus outbreak).

Summing Up:

It’s for the first time that IKEA will be taking the help of 3^rd party selling through Alibaba. The company is slowly trying its hands on modern sales channels and going online.

For a company that is 77 years old, it might take some time to get a merger with the new age methods. But once it is successful in it, just imagine how big it will be.

We hope to see IKEA growing up the ladder and with Alibaba, both seem to have a win-win situation.