IKEA built a global empire selling affordable furniture that people assembled themselves. For its first store in India, the Swedish retailer is upending its business model.
The India store, set to open next month in the southern city of Hyderabad, will feature IKEA’s first in-house furniture-assembly team, with 150 full-time employees. IKEA created the optional service after research indicated many Indians would be unlikely to buy bookshelves and tables they had to screw together.
The store also will have items tailored for Indian preferences, such as lunchbox sets to carry multiple-course meals, pans to cook Indian flatbread, and mattresses containing coconut fibers, which many Indians find cooling. The outlet’s 1,000-seat restaurant will be IKEA’s biggest to date, serving samosas and biryani as well as Swedish meatballs made with chicken or vegetables because most Indians don’t eat beef or pork.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to work on this story on IKEA Hyderabad for The Wall Street Journal with photo editor Stephanie Aaronson. Read the piece here.
