Ikea UK sales boom – here's what you need to know

Retailer’s tills keep ringing

Today, home furnishings retailer IKEA announces total sales of £1.814 billion in the UK for the financial year ending 31 August 2017 (FY17), an uplift of +5.8 per cent compared to the previous year. This is IKEA UK’s sixth consecutive year of growth, with a +57 per cent increase in sales over the last six years. 

The retailer continues to outperform the market in home-furnishings, increasing its market share by +0.5 per cent, bringing the retailer one step closer to the ambition of increasing overall market share to 15 per cent by 2027.

Gillian Drakeford, IKEA UK Country Retail Manager, said: “As we celebrate our 30^th anniversary this year, we remain committed to the UK and are proud to have achieved another successful year of growth. This is testament to the talent of our co-workers and our ambition to inspire customers with the best possible experience.”

This performance is outlined in IKEA UK’s Annual Summary, which this year provides a holistic overview of its contribution to the UK economy in FY17 such as job creation and its role in society. Key highlights from the report are outlined below:

Accessibility and customer experience

A focus on improving accessibility and the service proposition has contributed to the retailer’s sixth year of growth. Cementing its commitment to the UK, with recent store openings in Reading and Sheffield, IKEA plans to open two more stores in Exeter and Greenwich during the coming year. Improving the online shopping experience with a new website has also paid off (sales +10 per cent), with online now accounting for 15 per cent of total sales.

Sales and visitation continues to grow in both stores and online. In total, 57.2 million people visited IKEA stores in FY17, resulting in a sales uplift of +5.7 per cent.

Gillian adds: “We have ambitious expansion plans for the UK and are committed to making IKEA more accessible to the many people. As well as opening new stores, we are also enhancing existing stores. Half way through the year we refurbished all living room departments in preparation for this year’s ‘Make Room for Life’ campaign and we are already seeing a great response to this. We also rebuilt many of our self-serve areas by creating wider aisles so that it’s a safer and more pleasant shopping experience for customers.

“We have also expanded our service proposition, providing our customers with more choice and convenience. In addition to our global acquisition of TaskRabbit, we also launched Click and Collect in all Order and Collection points.”