In a massive restructuring, Ikea is cutting jobs and creating new ones to invest in better online offerings and more city-center stores Change is coming to Ikea: The Swedish furniture retailer is going through a rare and major restructuring.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, Ikea will slash 7,500 jobs in ?office-based work like communications, human resources and administrative functions,? while adding 11,500 new jobs in the next two years focusing on online and delivery offerings. Ikea announced an effort to ramp up e-commerce operations operations back in 2015, focusing mainly on bringing most of its catalog online. Evidently, there is still much room for improvement as consumers continue to embrace online shopping.
According to Tolga Öncü, Ikea?s head of retail, growth in the number of visitors to its existing stores has ?stalled?, which has spurred Ikea to make drastic efforts to keep up. Ikea will also invest more in the in-store experience. Ikea stores, with huge footprints and a dizzying array of products, have long been a cornerstone of the Ikea experience. While countless brick and mortar retailers have one by one had to shut down, or at least, rethink their in-store approach in recent years, Ikea hasn?t made much of a change so far. But now, the company is planning to reduce the number of products it displays in stores to make room for more styled living rooms and bedrooms.
And potentially most notable to Curbed readers, Ikea is continuing ...