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Q:How have the pickup and order points contributed to the business?

A: The pickup and order points themselves are all part of our home store sales, so it is all wrapped up in our growth this year. They have been very successful and they worked as we intended — some people are shopping online and visiting to pick up, other people are spending time in the unit touching and feeling the furniture and talking to associates. We have already have had 800,000 visits to the six locations — customers seem to really like them.

Q: How big of a part of the total business is e-commerce?

A: E-commerce represents about 7 per cent or 8 per cent of the total business now. We still see the store as being absolutely the core of our business. We know people want to interact with Ikea online and in different ways, but the store is where everything comes together.

Q: How do you think the housing market is affecting Ikea’s performance?

A: For sure it’s helping. We know when people move houses we are a first choice for people to invest in new furniture. And we know that Canadians are spending more time at home in Canada right now due to the weak Canadian dollar. People have an interest in investing in their home and we are helping contribute to that. It’s a good time.

Q: How much is the services aspect of the business growing, and are you adding any new services in Canada?

A: We have started one-on-one kitchen planning (at two Ontario locations) and that has been exceptionally popular, we maybe underestimated how popular it would be. You can come to a store and schedule a dedicated time slot with a co-worker in order to really dig into your dream kitchen and get everything you need. The response has been so fantastic we will roll it across the country now. The services business is growing in line with our total sales. We introduced flat-rate pricing and tried to make it much more simple for customers, so we see (services) as a big growth driver in the future as well.

Financial Post

hshaw@nationalpost.com

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