‘Second living room for Kiwis’: Ikea’s hopes for the NZ market

Tuesday, 2 December 2025

“A second home for Kiwis”, that’s what Ikea hopes its Sylvia Park store will be when it opens its doors for the first time on Thursday.

And that home is likely to soon contain a Billy bookcase.

The Billy bookcase is one of Ikea home furnishing and retail design manager Ed Hincks’ picks for the top sellers in the opening week of the Swedish retail giant’s first New Zealand store.

“There's one sold every four seconds somewhere in the world, which is crazy. It's an icon. It's a bookcase that's been around for 30 years. You can do so much with Billy,' Hincks told The Post.

His other picks for bestsellers? The Ikea 365 food container and the Mackapar shoe storage cabinet.

“We know that Kiwis really like meal prepping and looking after themselves, so that product, I think will definitely fly out the door.

“Shoe storage, we know is another frustration for Kiwis. They want to have an organised hallway or even an organised bedroom closet, and a Mackapar is great because you can put it either in your closet or anywhere else in the house.”

Ikea visited 500 homes up and down the country two years ago to find out how to Kiwis like to live. Now it’s just two days until its 34,000 sqm flagship opens its doors. It expects at least 15,000 people to visit the store on opening day.

Hincks, who had painted his nails with the colours of Ikea (and Sweden’s flag) - blue on one hand and yellow on the other, said the retailer has spent long days this week getting the store ready for opening.

He believed shoppers would like what they see; including an assortment of showrooms and full-sized display houses furnished to what may be found in a Kiwi home.

And it won’t just be those heading to the store: on Thursday at 12.01am, the local store’s website will go online.

“From the word go, we thought it's not all about Auckland, we want this to be for the whole of New Zealand.

Home delivery in urban areas will start from $6 and for bigger items, there will be 29 pick up locations around the country.

Ikea’s also been teaching how to shop via its app - whether it be in store or online.

“With social media we've very much been educating customers, telling them this is how we like you to shop. It's also about helping them and making it a little bit easier as well,” said Hincks.

“We want them to come in and explore it, sit down on the couch, open the cupboards, and really get familiar with it like this.”

The top level of the Sylvia Park store is home to the showroom for shopper inspiration, and the bottom floor is to collect flatpack furniture, and where the ‘Market hall’ of small gadgets and small furnishings is located.

Ikea changes its showroom displays four times a year with the season, and is hoping Kiwis will do the same. It regularly has new limited edition product releases with different brands, including as part of collaborations, such as a recent collab with Swedish music group Swedish House Mafia.

Ikea NZ manager Johanna Cederlof said Ikea had big ambitions for the New Zealand market. She expected it to be well received and quickly become “a second living room for Kiwis”.

And there will be plenty to choose from - Ikea Sylvia Park is home to 7500 products.

There’s also staffed children’s play area free for children aged 3 to 8 years old, a bistro and 420-seat restaurant. Like all its stores, Ikea is hoping to keep shoppers inside and spending for as long as it can.

Retail expert Chris Wilkinson, managing director of First Retail Group, said there was a lot of excitement in the air both in and outside of the retail sector over what Ikea might do for the market and wider economy.

“Ikea is going to be good for all retail. People are going to be inspired and it will lift the game for all retailers,” he said.

Wilkinson said the opening and launch of the brand here came at a good time - just as people were starting to thinking about spending ahead of Christmas - and when interest rate reprieve was starting to roll through giving people a bit more spending power.

The latest spending figures from Bellwether last week show encouraging lifts in sales in the retail sector. Footfall and average transaction values are both up 2% and total transaction volumes are up 4%, when compared with same week last year.

“The big evolution of retail in the last decade has been from buying products to buying experiences but Ikea’s always been at the forefront of that right before this trend ever happened. The stores have always been an inspiring and immersive experience,” said Wilkinson.

He said there was no doubt that Ikea would do very well in New Zealand.

“The good thing with Ikea is you can spend a little and feel very fulfilled.”

Ikea is a multi-billion company, making sales more than €47.6 billion in FY24.

Total sales in Australia last year, where it operates 10 stores, were $1.725b. Its food sales outpaced furniture sales for the first time, and the company sold 17.8 million plates of food in Australia last year.

And approximately 13.8 million meatballs.

Wilkinson said he expected a second Ikea store in the future, most likely in Canterbury.