IKEA did not want to burn its fingers on online sales for years, but now seems to be catching up anyway. The furniture giant is opening a number of pick-up points where customers can pick up their internet orders. It involves ten pick-up points in Germany, with no shops attached.
Consumers who have ordered online cannot pick up their products immediately after ordering. As no IKEA branch is adjacent, the goods have to be brought here first. The pick-up points are a lot smaller in size than normal IKEA branches. A PuP of 500 square metres will be opened in Ravensburg this week, and IKEA already has a pick-up point in Leipzig too. Eight more PuPs will be added in the coming years. IKEA also wants to introduce the concept in the UK. There, a pick-up point was already opened in Norwich.
Also read: 4 logistics lessons we can learn from IKEA
Missed the boat?
IKEA only opened its digital doors in 2013. Customers still faithfully came to the shop, so IKEA did not see the need for an online shop. In early 2015, top executive Peter Agnjefall admitted that IKEA was richly overdue with e-commerce. "We certainly have not been the first to adapt to the shift in the market," Agnjefall told the New York Times. "But our thinking on this has since changed."
Editorial LogistiekProfs
