Furniture retailers prepare for road ahead as Ikea expands India footprint

Players counting on omni-channel retail, affordable products

The entry of Ikea, the world’s largest furniture retailer, into Mumbai with its second flagship store in the country may force organised players such as HomeTown (from Future group), HomeStop (from Shoppers Stop), and Home Centre (Landmark group) to revamp their offerings.

On Friday, the Navi Mumbai Ikea store opened for registered visitors to prevent crowding at the outlet. But the launch of the flagship store for the Mumbai region has pushed organised players to expand their product portfolios, industry sources said, tapping a wider set of consumers with furniture at affordable price points.

Mumbai is a key consumption centre for organised players apart from other big cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Delhi, owing to the concentration of a large working population, who are prepared to try out new designs and furnishings and are open to shopping online. Many of these people have the disposable incomes but are constrained on account of busy schedules, Arvind Singhal, chairman, Technopak, said.

Omni-channel retail as a result is the new buzzword for most of these operators as they look to integrate their online and offline presence to ensure maximum convenience and ease of shopping, experts said.

Discounts to consumers shopping for the upcoming Christmas season, for instance, have already kicked in. HomeTown has begun its Christmas season sale offering as much as 60 per cent discount on its home furniture range online. Executives at the Future group say that work from home furniture as well as essentials for the home are in high demand as people limit their movement out. This trend is expected to continue over the next few months in 2021 till the announcement of a vaccine.

Future group Founder Kishore Biyani, for the record, has retained his home furnishings business under Praxis Retail despite selling his other retail, wholesale, and logistics assets to Reliance Retail in a nearly Rs 25,000-crore deal in August.

Executives at Home Centre and HomeStop were not immediately available for comment.

But Ikea will have to contend with another big player, Reliance Retail, which has entered the online furniture market by acquiring Urban Ladder last month.

As competition continues to grow, the country’s largest online player Pepperfry will bank on its four-pronged strategy – omni-channel retail, supply-chain synergies, technology and brand-building — to grow its business.

Pepperfry Co-Founder & CEO Ambareesh Murty, who feels more competition is good for the market, says owning the supply chain has helped the firm in its operations. “This supply chain has held us in good stead even during the pandemic as we were not reliant on anyone else for delivery,” Murty says.

Currently, Pepperfry has the ability to deliver in over 300 towns, leveraging its supply chain to fulfill demand in these regions. 

The company has plans to add 8-10 new fulfillment centres to its existing suite of 23 warehouses spanning a total of 1 million sq ft.

The total market for furniture retail in India, according to industry estimates, is pegged at Rs 70,000 crore. This includes organised as well as the unorganised segments. The organised market, according to Technopak, is just 3 per cent of the total market. This is likely to touch 5 per cent of the total market in the next few years, led by competitive intensity.

Most players expect Ikea to disrupt the market significantly offering well-designed furniture at affordable price points. Their range is also huge, offering as much as 7,000 products at their Navi Mumbai store alone. Over 1,000 of these products are priced below Rs 200.