Ikea to build a robust home-services department

Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is gearing up to build a robust home-services department that will take care of deliveries and assembly of its products, as it expects around 50% of its Indian customers to avail this facility.

This is in stark contrast to other markets Ikea operates in, where customers buy trademark Ikea ready-to-assemble beds and sofas and put them together at home, on their own.

Patrick Antoni, Deputy Managerm Ikea, India, said, "In some of our European markets, around 3-10% of our customers opt for home-delivery or assembly services. But we expect the numbers here to be much higher."

Ikea, which will open its first store in Hyderabad followed by Mumbai, will, however, charge for these services.

Antoni said, "We are investing in manpower, making space in our stores for these and nothing comes for free."

Ikea plans to start selling online soon after its first store opens and will offer its entire range. While the nature of its best-selling products differs from country to country — for instance, in France, its kitchen range does well as the French love cooking — in India, it expects bedroom and living room range to pick up first.

Antoni said, "In India, people not only use their bedroom for sleeping, they use it to dress up, watch TV and sometimes, even eat."