Did NZ break Ikea? Fans unimpressed by retailer’s early hiccups
Wednesday, 14 January 2026
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Its opening was hotly anticipated and hotly hyped: half a million customers came through Ikea’s doors in the first month and 1.9 million visited its website.
That unprecedented demand overwhelmed the slick Swedish furniture giant with click and collect paused, some orders cancelled and the customer support centre was closed for a few days to allow staff to catch up.
But now Ikea says it’s now back on track.
“Unfortunately, the combination with a new team and some system hiccups as well, led to the situation that we were a bit overwhelmed and couldn't manage to do all the required picking orders on time in the first opening week,” Ikea NZ manager Johanna Cederlof told The Post.
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Following the December 4 opening fanfare, the disappointment at the somewhat shambolic start was evident on Ikea fans’ social media posts.
“I love Ikea and have been eagerly waiting for their arrival in NZ, but something clearly isn’t right with their systems at the moment - it feels chaotic on several levels,” was one comment on social media.
“It’s baffling that such an experienced global business has stumbled so badly here,” said another.
“I’m just surprised they have so many teething problems. They’ve opened hundreds of stores, Christmas comes every year the same time, their computer systems don’t seem to have accurate stock. Orders on the first day were screwed up. I like Ikea but surprised how wrong they got it considering it’s not their first rodeo.”
Teams had been working around the clock to sort systems, Cederlof said.
The retailer had been “bombarded by thousands of visitors and online orders all over the country.
“Demands and orders are certainly over our expectations, and we expected a lot,” Cederlof said.
“We are sorry for every disappointed customer that we had and that was not intended.”
Cederlof said the “hiccups” came about from opening store and online shopping at the same time - the first time it had done this in any market.
She said no items were sold out, except for its lingonberry jam and soft toys, but “out of stock notices” were related to stock not being available in the store or distribution at the time.
'There's no stock issue. But what causes hiccups is modern retailing, when you have both online and offline, having a high amount of customers shopping at the same time, and then moving the stock from the warehouse to the shop floor.“
Also system wise, some products might appear as if they were out of stock but it was often because they hadn’t been moved to the sales location, Cederlof said.
The retailer had employed an additional 85 staff for logistics and its food business to help service demand, as well as put on more shifts in the evening.
It had now cleared the backlog of its orders and opened more delivery slots for addresses outside of Auckland.
“We still need to work on learning to balance the articles that are most beloved ones, so that we can increase their sales locations and perceived availability for both online and offline customers.”
Ikea had also begun using its own trucks to deliver stock between its external warehouse and store to ease the load on NZ Post and Mainfreight.
Lead times for truck deliveries of larger orders are 22 days, and for click-and-collect orders from the store are now five to six days.
Between 30 to 50 containers of stock are arriving weekly in New Zealand.
“We are back on track and constantly improving.”
Food sales exceed forecasts
Cederlof said the New Zealand market had quickly become the market using Ikea’s digital tools the most than any other global markets.
“What we’ve learned is Kiwis are a really digital nation, and they are using our apps and using our in store support digital screens, as well as the online to prepare their shopping, above our expectations,” Cederlof said.
New Zealand also ranked first out of all the Ikea stores for food sales.
“Food [sales] have definitely exceeded our expectations,” said Cederlof.
But she said Ikea was now in control of the volumes. “[However] the volumes are, of course, extremely high still.”
In the first month customers purchased more than 54,650 hot dogs, 21,595 cinnamon buns, and nearly 28,000 meatball dishes. Even its Swedish lingonberry jam sold out temporarily.
Products such as the iconic Ikea blue bag, Malm and Alex drawers, Pax wardrobe inserts and Billy bookcases, have been some of Ikea’s biggest selling items since opening.
First Retail Group managing director Chris Wilkinson said it was clear Ikea had been swept off its feet by demand following its opening - but he too was surprised to see how caught offguard it had been.
“It should have been no surprise that New Zealand would have been out of the bag, because of the performance we've seen from other retailers that have come into the market of similar scale,” Wilkinson told The Post.
Wilkinson said the perceived scarcity of some of Ikea’s products would likely work in the retailer’s favour long term.
“People have been buying all types of products from bedding through to even the example of the guy who got charged $65 for sticky pads for the bottom of his table. To think that someone had gone to Ikea to buy those things shows the scale of their operation and breadth of their product.”