Ikea hammers final nail into its print catalogue as shoppers turn to the web

Flat-pack furniture giant Ikea quietly brought 70 years of retail history to a close today as it announced it is to stop printing its laminated catalogue.

The current summer edition of the coffee-table staple will be the last to be published, worldwide Ikea franchisor Inter Ikea Systems BV  said,  ending a chapter that stretches back to 1951.

The move comes as part of Ikea’s ongoing transformation toward becoming a more digitally-focused operation, a trend across retail accelerated by the huge shift to ecommerce during lockdown.

It comes four months after Argos announced it was culling its own catalogue, the so-called “laminated book of dreams”.  For first-time flatpack DIYers, who quake at the prospect of assembling a Billy bookcase, the Ikea brochure was perhaps more a book of nightmares.  

Some 285,000 copies of the first Ikea catalogue, with 68 pages, were printed that year and distributed to people in the south of Sweden.

It was compiled personally by Ingvar Kamprad, the founder whose initials form the first two letters in Ikea. Throughout its 70-year history, though less in the UK, the catalogue regularly adorned the same coffee tables that were found in its pages. 

But the book has been moved to the back seat in recent years, as internet shopping has taken precedence.

“For both customers and co-workers, the Ikea catalogue is a publication that brings a lot of emotions, memories and joy,” said Konrad Gruss, managing director of Inter Ikea Systems.

“For 70 years it has been one of our most unique and iconic products, which has inspired billions of people across the world.

“Turning the page on our beloved catalogue is in fact a natural process since media consumption and customer behaviours have changed.