The INSIDER Summary:
- IKEA will officially sell its products through Amazon starting in 2018.
- Some IKEA products are already available on Amazon from 3rd-party sellers.
- Once the company officially transitions to Amazon, you won’t have to pay more than market value.
If you have an Amazon account, it’s time to count yet another blessing of the prime membership. Beginning next year, IKEA will officially sell its products via the enormous online retailer.
Of course, the brand clarified that it would only begin testing this online shopping alternative in 2018. And while top brass at IKEA wouldn’t reveal exactly which sites they’ll be working with, Reuters reports that Amazon and Alibaba are most likely.
«On digital platforms, we only sell our products through our own website, and there we also see that the competitive landscape is changing,» Chief Executive Torbjorn Loof told Reuters. «There is a rapid change in the market where much of what we have learned and what we know of is changing radically.» Essentially, IKEA wants to target more online customers by tapping those who already shop on Amazon and Alibaba.
However, after a quick search, we were able to find Ikea products (ranging from water bottles and flatware to lingonberry preserves to floor lamps) sold directly from the Swedish furniture giant on Amazon already. This is a huge win for anyone with a Prime membership, since you can completely bypass IKEA’s exorbitant shipping rates (about $129 for a $299 chair) and take advantage of free two-day shipping.
The official move to Amazon — which we’re anxiously awaiting — will come nearly six years after IKEA products first started popping up on Amazon via third-party sellers, which often marked up the prices. Time to start your Christmas wish list.
