Comment: Ikea still on top for now
Ikea has garnered amounts of column inches that any brand would die for as it unveiled its much-anticipated new store on London’s Oxford Street to massive crowds keen to see this smaller version of its mammoth-sized blue boxes.
There is no doubt the company has continued to engender an affinity with shoppers as seen by the youthfulness of those that have welcomed the new London outlet. Its low price points have ensured that it maintains a popularity that has been passed on from previous generations. This is no mean feat as tastes between the generations have typically differed – it’s almost a role of youth to rail against the tastes and preferences of their parents.
When Ikea hit the market it had a manifesto of sorts highlighted by the ‘chuck out your chintz’ advertising that presented young consumers with sleek Scandinavian furniture and furnishings that represented the future compared with their parents’ over-prissy, decorative interiors that smacked of a bygone era.
Oddly younger consumers today are still very much buying into this aesthetic as evidenced by their flooding into the Oxford Street Ikea. This is a store very much designed for metropolitan shoppers that are skewed to the younger demographic compared with Ikea’s traditional blue boxed located out of town or on the edge of urban areas that cater more for car-bound families.
Never Miss a Retail Update!There is some countercultural activity on the margins as seen by Cottagecore that romanticises rural, simple living, often with a focus on nature, traditional skills, and cosy comfort. It emphasises a slow pace of life, homemade crafts, and a connection to the outdoors, often drawing inspiration from vintage and antique styles.
Ikea undoubtedly aligns with some of this thinking through the hygge aesthetic. This Scandinavian concept involves neutral tones, simple materials, and details that instantly make you feel at ease, such as soft lighting and relaxing scents filling the air (there’s no escaping scented candles whatever your fashion tastes!). Such alignments have undoubtedly contributed to Ikea’s continued popularity and helped it maintain brand trust with consumers.
Speaking at the recent World Retail Congress Stefan Vanoverbeke, senior executive at Ikea, suggested the company’s brand trust had never been higher and that “more and more of this is about sustainability”. He highlighted the company’s increasing activities around pre-loved and that its furniture is now being designed to disassemble thereby enabling it to be more easily moved. Ikea is also firmly focused on its carbon footprint and has been decreasing CO2 emissions at greater relative rates than it has been increasing sales.
Herein lies the conundrum for retailers of all types – however much focused they are on sustainable endeavours the underlying objectives are invariably around selling more new products. For Ikea things remain on an even keel for now because even for the more strident young sustainability advocates price so often trumps the environment in their buying decisions. And we all know that Ikea is a winner when it comes to competitive pricing.
Where it could have a problem is if younger consumers do ultimately move away from the Ikea aesthetic and alongside this dismiss mass-produced furniture. As we are seeing with clothing – especially through the progress of Vinted – there is a growing appreciation of second-hand goods. The likes of Cottagecore are very marginal movements but it might just be a pointer to a more widespread shift by youngsters.
