DESPITE a 21-year presence in Malaysia, Swedish furniture and lifestyle retailer IKEA has never been available online – until today’s announcement that it is launching an e-commerce site in 2018.

IKEA Southeast Asia managing director Christian Rojkjaer said customers will be able to shop online from all four Malaysian stores next year. 

IKEA’s Batu Kawan store manager Pathmalingam Arumugam said it will launch the Singapore e-commerce site in two weeks while Malaysia’s next year. 

“We expect the websites to be up next year for customers to shop online,” Pathmalingam said at the ground-breaking of IKEA’s the much-awaited new store in Batu Kawan today. 

At present, IKEA outlets in Malaysia only provide delivery services to customers in selected areas. Customers still have to visit the stores to make their orders and purchases. 

The Penang store in Aspen Vision City in Bandar Cassia, Batu Kawan, is slated to open in the first quarter of 2019 and will likely be the only IKEA outlet for northern Malaysia. 

The RM600 million store 40,227 sq m store will be IKEA’s fourth in Malaysia, after those in Damansara and Cheras in the Klang Valley, and Tebrau in Johor which is slated to open by year-end. 

It is expected to serve 825,000 households in Penang and beyond. 

Rojkjaer said there were currently no plans to open additional stores after Johor and Penang. 

“I don’t think there will be any new store for years to come.”

Rojkjaer said the existing two IKEA stores which opened in 2003 and 2015 were extremely popular. – September 12, 2017.