After several attempts to enter the Ukrainian retail market over the past 15 years, Swedish flat-pack furniture giant IKEA officially launched online sales in Ukraine on May 14 in anticipation of opening its first physical store in the country.
“We are happy to start operating in Ukraine thanks to the launch of the online store, especially during the time when everybody is paying attention to safety and a comfortable home stay,” said Florian Mellet, IKEA’s chief in Ukraine, according to the company’s press release.
With 433 physical stores worldwide, the next step for IKEA in Ukraine after launching its online store is to open its first city store in Kyiv “as soon as possible.”
It will open in Ukraine’s largest shopping center, Blockbuster, since it has “a convenient and affordable location near the city center.” The lease contract was already signed in July 2019.
Currently, IKEA’s online store in Ukraine offers 3,600 items, less than one third of IKEA’s total product range.
After making a purchase, the order will be delivered using local delivery services. Buyers also have another option: to pick up the order in the Auchan or Metro Cash & Carry supermarkets. Both chains have multiple stores in Kyiv, and IKEA did not specify at which ones customers can pick up their orders.
The Kyiv Post called the online store for more details, but no operator answered the call.
Long path to Ukrainian market
IKEA first announced its intention to open a store in Ukraine in 2005. It planned to invest at least $1 billion into several giant stores across the country. But due to unfavorable business conditions and corruption risks, the project was postponed several times.
IKEA finally decided to enter the country in September 2017. It planned to open a huge store between 20,000 square meters, like the IKEA store in Reykjavik, and 59,000 square meters, like the one in South Korea.
However, in 2018, that plan fell through. IKEA announced that, in 2019, it would open a much smaller 6,000-square-meter store in the so-called “city format” in Kyiv’s Ocean Mall, another giant shopping center in Kyiv, which was under construction at the time.
But due to delays in the shopping center’s construction, the company decided to change its future location and consider “alternative options.”
At the time, IKEA said it still wanted to enter the Ukrainian market soon and confirmed “its desire to change the daily life of Ukrainians for the better by offering affordable products and solutions for home.”
