Essay Summary of Ikea Invades America

IKEA has definitely made great strides since coming to America in 1985. The case study points at many areas where idea has made huge impacts on the American furniture retail industry.

Looking at Exhibit 1 you can see steady growth in sales, Exhibit 3 shows the United States as the third largest buyer of IKEA’s goods, Exhibit 4 shows the Unites States as having the second most number of IKEA outlets in the world and Exhibit 8 shows them as being 14 in sales in America. Looking around at my friends places there is definitely tons of things bought at IKEA. While all these statistics show a very successful movement into the United States for IKEA I feel that there could be some obstacles IKEA could encounter in the future. As it said in the case study generally IKEA’s products don’t last more than a couple of years and that normally don’t have the endurance to survive a move to a new apartment. With how American’s historically purchase furniture, “change their spouse as often as their dining room table, about 1. 5 times in a lifetime. ” (Moon, 2004), this would seem at odds with the type of product that IKEA offers.

The idea that you have to assemble the furniture yourself is something that would seem to turn a large percentage of Americans away from buying an IKEA product. I personally have found some of the things I have bought from IKEA to be very challenging to put together. Another aspect of IKEA is their lack of product depth; it seems that a lack of selection would hurt IKEA in the American market. Outside of these differences in what IKEA has and American tastes there is a lot that IKEA has done very well with in America. IKEA seems to have established itself as the low price leader in the minds of most consumers.As we find ourselves in a time of economic downturn and everybody seems to be trying to save a little here and there that is huge for a retailer. The childcare aspect of the retail outlets is a huge plus to get families to come shopping and buy from you.

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If you can drop the kids off to play and you end up getting your shopping done in half the time I would have taken if your kids were with you than is a major factor in where you decide to shop. The restaurant in the store is great and the menu items they offer are unique the setting they offer them in. I can remember my parents saying “let’s go to IKEA and get some Swedish meatballs. ” Also the idea that you can walk away with what you bought that day leaves the consumer with a sense of satisfaction that next day delivery doesn’t achieve. Solutions to some of the problems seem to be easily attainable. When looking at the issue of durability you would say that many of their customers don’t go to IKEA to buy a product that lasts generations, so conveying to their customers that they shouldn’t expect to be buying a product that you can hand down to your children would help. The idea that consumers in this generation solve problems by just buying a new product to replace the broken one really helps externally to solve that problem.

IKEA could offer an group like “geek squad” to consumers, for an extra charge, that would bring the product to your home and assemble it could help to attract “lazy” Americans who don’t want to assemble the furniture themselves. Ultimately the consumers that they market to don’t need any changes to what IKEA does. IKEA provides the experience of buying what is perceived to be a high quality product for an affordable price.It would seem the IKEA experience is something that people line up to do and it seems to be a very successful model for IKEA. I wouldn’t recommend any changes to what IKEA does. Why would you change something that is working so well? Overall IKEA seems to have done a very good job in creating a sector where they can carve out a profit. You are always going to have price conscious consumers looking for something that looks nice and is affordable and IKEA can offer people that hands down.

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