A fine balance: Will an omni-channel strategy power IKEA's growth?

A modest target of 25 stores in 2016 has expanded to a strategy to make India one of the Swedish giant's top five markets in a decade

Swedish giant IKEA’s maiden store in Hyderabad has been a Covid-19 casualty with footfalls halving to two million this year (its financial year ends in August). But the furniture and furnishing conglomerate has seen a surge online — it has had 25 million visitors online this year from Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune against 10 million the previous year.  

After waiting patiently for more than 12 years to ride out the multiple policy changes in foreign direct investment in single-brand retail and new clauses on sourcing, IKEA said it is in India for the long haul. Having celebrated its second anniversary