The Business Functions Of IKEA

This paper aims to demonstrate a detailed description of the elements of ‘IKEA’ company based on its famous name in the furniture industry.

IKEA stores have been present in five big areas in the world which are North America, South America, Europe, Russia, Asia and Australia as of 31 December, 2014. IKEA group have stores located in 42 countries which include Australia, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Denmark, France, Germany and etc. IKEA group sell their products in to these 42 countries with their domestic currencies such as Australian Dollar (AUD), Yuan (RMB), Taiwan New Dollar (TWD), Malaysian Ringgit (MYR), Singapore Dollar (SGD), Danish Krone (DKK), Euro (EUR) and etc. The reason of using domestic currency is because this is easier for the customers to buy IKEA products in their country.

The services and products offered by IKEA provide value to its customers in various ways. For one, the products and services are very affordable. The products and services are not priced highly and therefore, the average customer can enjoy them. At the same time, the products are of high quality. From IKEA’s slogan “low prices but not at any price”, it is clear that the company prices its products lowly but that does not mean that the quality is compromised. IKEA satisfying its customer’s needs through providing them value for their money as they provide quality products that will last for a long time, and at affordable costs. The fact that the company has set the minimum acceptable standards for its wood, implies that it is also keen on quality and on the environmental impact of its action of making furniture ( Edvardsson, Enquist & Hay, 2006).

IKEA is a global furniture retailer, which is established on the concept of contributing wide range of well designed, functional, and low cost home furnishing products in 40 countries, with 330 stores and 154,000 workers (The IKEA concept, 2012). IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kampar and has turned in an international furniture retailer that specialized in stylish but inexpensive furniture designs.

IKEA is one of the largest multinational companies in the world dealing with several products. The company sells and designs furniture appliances and home accessories at an affordable price. Ikea has over three hundred stores worldwide enjoying the good name it has created for itself. While they are one of the most profitable furniture companies in the world there are significant challenges and threats that have been overcome and are still needed to be tackled.

Being one of the leading Companies in Furniture, IKEA offers an extensive variety of decently composed, useful home outfitting products at costs that are reasonable to individuals who are attracted to their Swedish design. This is the real trick which led to IKEA’s success, advancement in product design development, targeting proper designers and suppliers to how they offer their products in IKEA stores. Over the past six decades, IKEA went from the cozy forested areas of southern Sweden to being a one of the largest competitors in the retail industry in over 40 countries around the globe. The story of IKEA began in 1926 when organizer Ingvar Kamprad is conceived in Småland in southern Sweden. He is raised on 'Elmtaryd' where he began his entrepreneur skills by selling matchsticks as a source of income where he discovered bulk purchases at discounted rates and learnt how to expand his inventory which in turn led to IKEA. IKEA expands their markets, for example, Japan and Russia. Everything from the

IKEA serves a huge product range to the customers. The products of IKEA are well designed and structured, functional products. The company serves its products globally. IKEA’s customers can find the same products in any IKEA store and they can trust their quality. With the vision of creating an everyday life for people, IKEA finds the balance between function, quality, design and price. With merchandising the cost efficient products to the customers, IKEA does not compromise from the profit margins. Having a well structured business model, IKEA can decrease the costs of the products and can serve a competitive price to the customer. While doing that, IKEA creates long term partnerships with its suppliers. The long term partnerships makes lowering costs easier for IKEA since they can easily negotiate about prices. Another advantage about lowering costs is cheaper unit costs. IKEA makes huge amount of purchases so they can decrease the unit costs through the economies of scale principle. Creating better business relationships helps IKEA to make their businesses

IKEA also based on low cost to achieve hybrid strategy. Big items are all flat-packed that the customers transported and assembled themselves. This saves IKEA with shipping costs from suppliers and delivery costs to customers so that they can pass this benefit to customers through low price. In the stores, there are no armies of sales staffs. Customers are providing with tape measures and pencils so that they can self-served. This reducing the number of sales staff required. IKEA encourages customers to create value for themselves by taking on certain tasks traditionally done by the retailers and their low expectation on service levels keeps costs down. Additionally, IKEA choose most economical suppliers over traditional suppliers around the world. The company buys great volume of materials from suppliers to get the economies of scale. Since the labour in UK is expensive, their products are produced in

IKEA began as a small company in Sweden selling small household items but in 1945 began selling furniture. IKEA has expanded to other European countries, Canada and Australia. Currently, IKEA is the market leader in the distribution of furniture and home decorative items. IKEA entered the Russian market in 1991 but did not open its first store until 2000 in Moscow.

Corporate name, founding date, founding leaders. IKEA, one of the most successful retailers in the world, was established by Ingvar Kamprad, in 1943, in Sweden (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2015).

The history of the company is very colorful and interesting. IKEA was founded in 1943 in the south of Sweden in Smaland. Its founder was seventeen - Ingvar Kamprad. The boy had a great deal of business, and IKEA was not his first venture. Previously, he was selling matches in his hometown. His capital for the establishment of IKEA comes from his father, who rewarded him for good academic performance. He called his company IKEA from the first letters of his name, and the names of the family farm and the village Agunnaryd Elmtaryd. The company initially dealt with the sale of feathers, frames, wallets, tablecloths, watches, jewelry, stockings and fine furniture. Kamprad to transport their goods, borrowed a truck from the local milkman.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture giant was founded in 1943. It is the world's largest furniture retailer that sells stylish but inexpensive Scandinavian designed furniture. It has outlets in 35 countries, including Singapore. The company is, perhaps, one of the World's most successful multinational retailing firms operating as a global organization based on its unique concept that the furniture is sold in knock down form that are to be assembled by the customer at home.

In PEST analysis, we will look into what will be affect by the business environment. It includes political environment, economical environment, social environment and technological environment.

In august 2008, IKEA had total 253 stores where 560 million people visited. Here the total sales became 23 billion Euros. Considering 20% sales profit here IKEA’s average customer per store and cost per store are given below:

IKEA established itself as the largest furniture retailer in Sweden by the early 1970s by reinventing the wheel of furniture manufacturing at that time. Majority of furniture manufacturers in Sweden produced expensive products with designs that were basic or passed down generation to generation, additionally other manufacturers stores where located in downtown congested areas. IKEA’s strategies which consisted of low cost low priced furniture, brave intricate designs, self-assembly,