Swedish furniture retailer Ikea is to charge customers of its new Carrickmines outlet a flat fee of €15 to order and collect goods at the south Dublin outlet.
The not-insignificant fee means that customers based in the southern part of the city, or further south in Wicklow or Wexford, will avoid the extra journey and tolls involved in visiting the brand’s flagship store in Ballymun.They won’t, however, avoid a visit to the “market hall”, where purchases of candles, picture frames and storage boxes can quickly drive up the cost of your cheap bookcase.
The store, which opened this morning, is 15,000sq ft, so considerably smaller than the Swedish chain’s Ballymun store, which is more than 300,000sq ft.
This means that you won’t be able to buy your Billy bookcase directly from the store; rather the outlet will act primarily as “a planning studio”. To buy your bookcase you can place an order in store, and the goods can be made available for collection at the smaller store for the aforementioned fee of €15. Home delivery will also be an option, with costs starting at €44. In the UK, the cost for small parcels at order and collection points is considerably less, at £3.75 (€4.76), rising to £7.50 (€9.52) for large parcels. For all other large orders the cost is £15 (€19).
Ikea says that a small range of the “market hall” products will be available for customers to take home on the day of their visit to Carrickmines, while a specialty cafe and juice bar with free wifi and a small selection of take-home Swedish food market products, including frozen meatballs, will be available.
Ikea’s order and collection outlet is not a new concept; Ikea has already trialled the format in the UK, in both Norwich and Aberdeen, and is shortly set to open a similar outlet in London, as part of an effort to make Ikea “more accessible to many more people”. But it’s the first time that the Swedish furniture giant has brought the idea to Ireland.
Global sales
Ikea group said full-year sales rose 7.1 per cent, partly driven by growth in China, as the world’s largest furniture retailer prepares to open its first stores in India and Serbia. However, this is down from 11 per cent in 2015.
Revenue increased to €34.2 billion in the 12 months through August, the vendor of Billy bookshelves said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday. Excluding currency shifts, sales advanced 7.9 per cent. Same-store sales grew 4.8 per cent.”
China remains one of the fastest growing markets for Ikea Group, together with Australia, Canada and Poland, the company said. “Germany retained its position as the largest market, closely followed by the US, and showed another year of record growth. Expansion also continued at pace and plans are on track to open the first stores in India and Serbia during the coming year.”
Ikea Group, which runs the majority of the world’s Ikea stores, is targeting €50 billion in sales by 2020 as it adds outlets and expands its online offering. The closely-held company operates 340 stores in 28 countries. In the year through August, it opened 12 new stores and 19 pick-up points, where customers can see a limited part of the range and collect pre-ordered items. It had 783 million visits to its stores.
(Additional reporting Bloomberg)
