IKEA slashes prices on products as transportation and materials costs ease
If you're looking for a good deal on furniture, you may be in luck.
Swedish home and furniture company IKEA announced this week it has been cutting prices on their products available across a number of countries and is further expanding its price cuts in 2024.
"We recently re-introduced New Lower Price, a price reduction on hundreds of our customers' favorite IKEA products, with plans to continue lowering prices on hundreds more products in the coming months," IKEA said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
Decreasing prices of raw materials
Tolga Öncu, head of retail at Inkga Group, the biggest owner of IKEA stores, said in a news release in late January that the company had seen "continued positive economic developments and decreasing prices of raw materials in the supply chain."
Öncu also said in the news release the company has been focused a lot on "reducing operational costs and improving efficiency" and that, as a result, Inkga Group would be "passing on all the savings onto its customers and making another wave of price investments across markets – the second one in five months."
"In January and over the coming three months, the company is increasing its investment in price reductions. This will affect all sections of its range, making thousands of products of good quality and design even more affordable for the many," the news release reads.
Öncu said the company's goal is to "restore prices long term and reach their inflation-adjusted pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year," according to the news release.
'Pricing rather than profitability'
The price cuts started in Europe in September and have led to an increase in customers, as well as an increase in items sold by the retailer, Öncu told CNBC.
“This is the moment for companies like IKEA to invest in pricing rather than profitability,” Öncu told CNBC, adding that a lot of people now have “thinner wallets.”
Ingka Group did not immediately respond to a USA TODAY request for comment.
According to Reuters, Ingka Group has invested more than 1 billion euros (about $1.1 billion) in price cuts across markets it operates in between September and November 2023. Ingka Group has IKEA retail operations in 31 markets and represents about 90% of IKEA retail sales.