SEOUL, March 20 (Korea Bizwire) – Prices at the recently opened IKEA store in Gwangmyeong, on the outskirts of Seoul, are among the most expensive in the OECD. The only country with higher average prices than Korea is IKEA’s home base of Sweden. The global furniture giant appears to have chosen a high-price policy in Korea, [...]
SEOUL, March 19 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean retailers and furniture makers are turning to the homeware business, a nascent industry awakened by the local opening of Swedish furniture giant IKEA that promises big growth ahead as South Koreans begin to renovate and decorate their aging homes. Over the past year, a handful of homeware stores [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 13 (Korea Bizwire) – A not-so-funny thing has happened recently, in that the only IKEA store in Korea could not provide enough pencils for its customers. IKEA’s self-service checkout system requires the use of a pencil for customers to write down product numbers or the location of display stands. On February 9, a [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Korea Bizwire) – More than half of home-furnishing retailers near IKEA’s first shop in South Korea have seen their sales sink for the past two months, hit by the Swedish industry giant’s entry into the local market, a poll showed Sunday. According to the survey conducted by the Korea Federation of SMEs on [...]
GWANGMYEONG, Korea, Jan. 22 (Korea Bizwire) – IKEA Korea was embroiled in controversies over its perceived high pricing policies and its map favoring Japan even before opening its first shop in Korea. However, one month after opening it’s first store in Korea, the business is a resounding success. On January 21, IKEA Korea welcomed its 1 [...]
“IKEA sells not only furniture but also other household products, but it is categorized as a specialty shop for furniture under the current law. Under these circumstances, it is not regulated with regards to operation hour restrictions or forced closures like other big box retailers, which causes controversy in the aspect of fairness.” “Due to [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – The Korean Fair Trade Commission has set out to investigate the pricing policy of IKEA following a controversy surrounding large price differences charged by the furniture giant in Korea and elsewhere. Chang Deok-jin, director in charge of consumer protection with the Fair Trade Commission, said on November 24 in a press [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – Against IKEA’s discriminatory pricing policy in Korea, as well as its sale (in some markets) of a large-scale world map with the East Sea indicated as the Sea of Japan, a nationwide boycott that even includes a provincial council is spreading. At the frontline of the boycott movement is [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — IKEA is being criticized for its pricing policy in Korea. That’s largely because the Swedish furniture seller has not found out enough about Korean consumers. Earlier on November 13, IKEA Korea began its first marketing effort by releasing pricing information on its 8,500 items to be on sale in [...]
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Korea Bizwire) — Sweden’s furniture giant IKEA will open its first store in Korea on December 18 in Gwangmyung, a residential town located in the southern outskirts of Seoul. Earlier on November 13, the company launched a Korean website and showed off more than 8,000 items on sale and their prices. As the [...]