// Ikea says lower prices on popular ranges have led to customers returning to stores
// Visitor numbers and sales volumes were up so far in the group’s fiscal year through August 2023
Ikea has said promotional campaigns have helped boost footfall and sales across its business.
The homewares giant said lower prices on popular ranges have led to customers returning to stores as the cost-of-living crisis continues to affect budgets.
Ikea owner Ingka’s chief executive Jesper Brodin said visitor numbers and sales volumes were up so far in the group’s fiscal year through August 2023, Reuters reported.
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“We are currently seeing growing visitor numbers and growing sales,” he said.
“It started late spring, summer, and has continued. Part of the increase has to do with inflationary impact on prices, but we are doing above index on quantity.
“Resorting to promotion campaigns would hopefully be a temporary initiative. They are not a new commercial strategy. My anticipation is that in a year or two we will again much more be looking at medium- and long-term investments in price.”
He declined to say whether prices on average were up or down so far in the current fiscal year.
Brodin said Ingka was currently seeing no signs of weakening demand and expects supply levels to normalise in the coming months.
In December, Ikea warned that it cannot rule out further price increases in the new year, but it will attempt to be “competitive and affordable” after profits fell by almost a fifth.
The decline in profits came despite a 12% increase in sales in the year to 31 August, thanks to shoppers returning to stores.
The company has tried to keep costs down and trade more sustainably by cutting waste, which is down by 50% on food, and is switching to electric vehicles for deliveries to customers’ homes.
