Ikea India is sharpening its omni-channel strategy and eyeing higher sales from online channel by next year. In January, this year the Swedish furniture retailer expanded doorstep deliveries to 65 new districts in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It is also gearing up to launch e-commerce operations in NCR region early next year.

Bhavana Jaiswal, Country E-commerce manager, Ikea India told businessline, “India is one of the few markets where we have been able to go online-first in new regions. Usually, in new regions, we launch the store, which is obviously the jewel in our crown, followed by online launch. Knowing the tech-savvy nature and the digital forwardness of Indian consumers, we went online-first in Mumbai and Bengaluru. We are doing the same in Delhi. So, we are strongly focusing on an omni-channel strategy.”

“Our long-term ambition is to have over 30 per cent of sales from e-commerce channels by FY30 (September-August fiscal period). As we continue with online expansion including in the Delhi-NCR region, we expect this share to grow strongly further,” Jaiswal added.

365-day exchange/return policy

Talking about the learnings from the brand’s e-commerce channel expansion into new districts in these four key States, she said that the response has been “very encouraging”. “There have been a lot of learnings. The customer-acquisition strategy in smaller markets is different. They may first start with buying smaller-ticket items and then graduate to higher-ticket items and our intent is to build their confidence, gain trust and garner repeat purchases,” she added. The company has recently introduced a 365-days exchange and return policy to offer more convenience and flexibility to consumers.

Jaiswal added that the strategy of doorstep deliveries being completely fulfilled by its stores gives the brand a “competitive advantage and helps in making swiffer deliveries”.

In a bid to make online shopping more immersive, Ikea India has also launched an AI-driven tool called Kreativ. Jaiswal explained the feature allows for 3D visualisation allowing consumers to re-imagine their living spaces virtually with Ikea products. Being AI-driven, the tool also makes recommendations. Talking about festival trends, Jaiswal said that categories including furniture, accessories storage and cleaning besides gifting are witnessing strong traction on the company’s e-commerce channel.

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