As the Swedish home furnishings retailer Ikea prepares to invest more than ₹20,000 crore to expand its footprint in the country, it is learning that the Indian home works very differently from the European one.
The company is rethinking its merchandising and store strategy around a simple observation: Indian consumers are spending more on living rooms and bedrooms than kitchens "We see much more living room and bedroom here than in Europe. The bedroom in India is a 24-hour room," Patrik Antoni, chief executive officer of IKEA India, told Mint.
The difference lies not in furniture preferences but in how Indian households use their homes. Unlike in Europe, where kitchens often double up as social spaces, Indian consumers continue to invest more heavily in living rooms, where families entertain guests, and bedrooms, which increasingly serve multiple purposes beyond sleeping. These insights are influencing the company's domestic playbook.
The company aims to nearly double local sourcing to 50% from 30% currently, expects to double its India headcount to about 5,000 by 2030, and is targeting profitability in the country by fiscal 2028.
After entering the country in 2018, starting in Hyderabad with large destination stores, the Swedish retailer is now leaning more heavily into smaller-city formats in shopping malls as shopping habits evolve. "People want everything here now, and they don't want to go so far," Antoni said.
Smaller stores, bigger malls
While large-format stores will remain central to its long-term strategy, the retailer has already opened city stores in malls in Delhi and Pune and says the format has drawn strong customer traffic while also boosting footfall for the malls themselves. In the coming days, it will also open a store at Delhi's DLF Avenue mall.
The home furniture market was valued at $17.05 billion (about ₹1.47 trillion) in 2025 and is projected to grow to $34.24 billion by 2034, a CAGR of 7.66% said IMARC Group.
Last year, the company said it would double its investment commitment in India to about ₹20,000 crore. It has plans to have about 20 stores total, he added. Nearly half of that will go towards its Ingka Centres, a mixed-use development in Noida and Gurugram that will house large-format stores alongside offices, hotels and retail outlets. The remaining investment will fund new stores, distribution centres, digital capabilities and renewable energy projects, including a solar park in Rajasthan.
Delhi-NCR, alongside Bengaluru, has emerged as its largest priority market, driven by higher incomes and rapid residential development. The Noida project, located near two metro lines in Sector 51, is expected to open in 2028 and will include a hotel developed by the listed hotel developer SAMHI Hotels.
The retailer competes with organised players such as Home Centre, Pepperfry, Urban Ladder, Godrej Interio, and Nilkamal Homes, as well as direct-to-consumer companies, although the highly fragmented furniture market remains dominated by local manufacturers and neighbourhood retailers.
Beyond physical stores, the retailer is also expanding digitally into cities where it does not yet have a brick-and-mortar presence, including Chandigarh, Jaipur and Lucknow, allowing it to build demand before making larger investments. That strategy also reflects changing consumer expectations around convenience, fuelled partly by the rise of quick commerce.
Local sourcing
“Consumers are no longer willing to travel more than a couple of kilometres to shop,” said Harminder Sahni, chairman and managing director of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors. Destination retail's initial appeal has faded, with convenience now shaping purchase decisions via e-commerce, quick commerce or local stores. Retailers will need to lean on smaller formats, and in some cases, digital alone may suffice without a physical store, he added.
Antoni, however, does not see rapid delivery platforms as direct competition for furniture purchases, which continue to be planned rather than impulse-driven. "If you order a sofa, you will have it tomorrow. If you buy a table somewhere else, you often wait four weeks," he said.
India already exports around €400 million, or roughly ₹4,000 crore, in products annually to the retailer's global network through more than 40 suppliers. It also imports ₹800 crore worth of products here. Expanding furniture production will remain challenging due to the limited availability of certified wood and specialised raw materials, as well as the manufacturing standards required for global exports.
Increasing local production would not only strengthen India's role in the global supply chain but also make products more affordable for domestic consumers over time, Antoni said. The expansion will also require a much larger workforce.