Ikea Singapore recently launched its online store, getting many homeowners excited. Are the furniture options at Ikea priced competitively against other online retailers? We find out more.
(Photo: Ikea)
![81216-77014-ikea-website-6](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/81216-77014-ikea-website-6.jpg)
In order to assess whether Ikea is more affordable than other brands, we collected prices and dimensions of 22 different kinds and sizes of furniture like wardrobes, dining tables, sofas, drawers and bed frames. Often, we found that other online furniture stores like Furniture Mart and Forty Two were cheaper or at least competitive to Ikea’s prices.
For example, here’re 3 wardrobes of similar size and style from these stores, featured above. We found that Ikea’s product was 60 per cent more expensive than Forty Two’s, and 30 per cent more expensive in terms of price per volume.
![81220-wardrobe-2-dhnu6k-1024x276-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/81220-wardrobe-2-dhnu6k-1024x276-1.jpeg)
While we also found that Ikea was cheaper for some other products, our analysis showed that Ikea is not the dominant player in the “budget furniture” market in any meaningful way. Furniture Mart is relatively competitive against Ikea‘s pricing as well.
![81218-graph-22-g1xxrg-1024x468-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/81218-graph-22-g1xxrg-1024x468-1.png)
Pricing is not the only reason why Ikea isn’t the best option for budget furniture buyers. Sofas, wardrobes and tables can be extremely heavy and difficult to move. Given this, if you are buying these at Ikea, you are going to have a very difficult time moving them back to your home. Shopping online may seem to be a viable way of solving this problem. However, IKEA charges at least S$35 for delivery, which can almost double to S$65 if you are buying more than 10 items.
![81219-ikea-delivery-wde7yb-1024x407-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/81219-ikea-delivery-wde7yb-1024x407-1.png)
In contrast, Furniture Mart offers free delivery for almost all products we surveyed. An online shopping mall isn’t really all that “convenient” if you have to spend a lot of money to get your items to your door. Given this, it seems that other local retailers already offer much more competitive e-commerce experience than Ikea’s online store.
Last but not least, Ikea has built its brand around affordability with its iconic Do-It-Yourself assembly products. However, what Singapore consumers must realise is that other retailers already offer free installation for their products. As we’ve observed, the likes of Forty Two and Furniture Mart offer similar design, similar (if not lower) pricing, free delivery and installation.
Adapted from Value Champion.
![81217-furniture-mart-free-delivery-r7sg7t-1024x264-1](https://sonadecor.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/81217-furniture-mart-free-delivery-r7sg7t-1024x264-1.png)