Nissafors. Odger. Burvik. Mammut. Borgeby. Kyrre. Stockholm. IKEA PS 2014. Yes, while IKEA fans around the world may already be familiar with these and other names and the iconic brand they are part of, northern India is readying to get up close with the Swedish home furnishings brand as never before.
Almost seven years after it launched its first store in India, the Swedish home retail brand IKEA has finally arrived in north India, widely considered to be the largest furniture and interiors market in the country. However, an actual physical store is still some time away. Instead, starting March 2025, IKEA has launched online deliveries in Delhi-NCR and nine satellite cities in North India – Agra, Prayagraj (Allahabad), Amritsar, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Varanasi. Customers can now shop for 7,000+ products through the IKEA app, website and phone assistance.
In India, IKEA has close to 300+ million online and offline visitors and more than 2.7 million IKEA ‘family members’, including about 100,000 customers in Delhi already, according to the company. IKEA, which operates in more than 63 countries globally and reported a revenue of €45.1 billion in 2024, offers about 12,000 products and has over 4.6 billion visitors.
While it has long proclaimed India as an important market, its roll-out has been gradual, with four stores spread across Hyderabad, Bengaluru and two in Mumbai. Susanne Pulverer, CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA India, scotches this. “We may take more time to establish,” she says. “For the north, we wanted to set up the backbone and, in IKEA, we just don’t go into any facility and start operating. We set the whole backbone and also look at sustainability. We are not just going to move things from Pune or Mumbai up north, but we will also look at logistics where we can use railways as well. We are here for the long run, for the next 50 or 100 years.”
Significantly, three of these are the big box format the brand is known for globally. However, in a change of strategy designed to reach Indian customers closer to their homes, it seems the coming stores will be significantly smaller and be present in closer proximity to each other than they have been.
“This (north India) has been a missing piece in our India story,” adds Pulverer. “Now, it’s our turn to reciprocate and we’ve been eagerly waiting to bring IKEA to North India. As we continue to strengthen our omni-channel growth in the country, this launch in Delhi NCR and other markets will be a strong foundation for our future growth in the region”
“We have seen that there is a demand from these cities and we can service them with the CDC that we have put up,” Pulverer affirms. “It will be all the range 7,000 products and solutions that will be available and it can be then bought online and through the app or the website or through customer remote selling point. We will also then come with all our life at home leadership.”
To match its expansion into north India, IKEA has launched its first fully outsourced 180,000 sq ft Central Distribution Centre (CDC) in Delhi-NCR in Farrukh Nagar, in collaboration with global logistics provider Rhenus. “The distribution centre in Gurugram means next day delivery in the whole of NCR,” asserts Pulverer. The facility will accommodate both the e-commerce expansion and the upcoming large-format stores in the IKEA-anchored Ingka Centres projects in Gurgaon and Noida. The first of these stores, in Gurgaon, is expected to launch in 2026.
Ikea is changing
Incidentally, the brand had earlier announced that these stores would go beyond its large format stores found across the world, and instead would be ‘meeting centres’ a format that is being tried by the brand for the first time. Branded separately, Lykli Gurgaon and Lykli Noida, expected to open a couple of years later, will be closer to mixed use developments, which will include retail by other brands, commercial spaces, meeting facilities and even a hotel in Noida.
“In the Ingka group, our vision is to create a better everyday life for the people,” contends Giovanni Princiotta, operations director, central Europe & India, Ingka Centres, the owner of IKEA. “How we create this, how we transform this vision into reality is simply not to build a standard shopping centre, but to co-create vibrant meeting places together with IKEA, with our partners, but most importantly with our local communities. Our customers will have the opportunity to shop, eat, work, play and live a fantastic experience in our fabulous location. Everything will be done in an affordable way with a strong focus on sustainability and community engagement.”
Princiotta reveals that the group is excited about the opening of Lykli Gurgaon. “With a strong focus on design and strong connection with design elements, even the shape of the building is not standard at all. Gurgaon, with an investment of Rs3,500 crore, is expected to generate 5,000 job opportunities.”
According to a brand statement, “India holds a unique and strategic position within the global IKEA ecosystem with an extensive and integrated IKEA value chain present in the region. IKEA businesses have a four-decade-long history of sourcing from India – developing, sourcing and supplying IKEA products globally.” Meanwhile, people in Delhi NCR can get a peek into the world of IKEA via pop-up stores at four locations over March.
Online push
Matching global retail trends, IKEA seems to be focussing on the online channel in India. “Over 30 per cent of our sales currently come from online, making e-commerce a powerful and fast-growing channel for IKEA in India,” says Pulverer. “The e-commerce-first approach allows the brand to reach more customers quickly while gathering valuable insights into their needs and preferences. This will help make future stores more locally relevant and efficient. The introduction of IKEA Kreativ, an AI-driven tool that lets customers virtually redesign their living spaces with IKEA products, will further enrich these insights, especially given the market’s strong affinity for design.”
The rather small pop-up that is doing the rounds of Delhi NCR is a way to introduce the brand, especially to those unfamiliar with the brand. “Once people are used to the products, we will start our physical centres,” says Adosh Sharma, country commercial manager, IKEA India. “We realised that people in Delhi like colour and value newness in designs and have bigger balconies and garden spaces than any other city in India. So, we started to look into innovative outdoor living set-ups too.”