After a long run lasting more than 70 years, Ikea stops publishing its catalog in print.
The official decision to stop publishing the IKEA catalog comes as a historical reflection and a sudden sign of the times. Readers of catalogs and print products are on the decline, ikea catalogs are no exception, and companies are increasingly turning to digital.
Sic transit gloria mundi
THE catalog, THAT catalog will no longer be printed. It is the thud of a huge iceberg, the equivalent of the recent choice of Warner Bros to send all his movies in streaming, and not before in the room. It's not just about finding furniture and accessories, instructions for getting the IKEA family or anything else we might find in stores. It's an emotional issue, by Jupiter. The publication by the Swedish house, however, directly marked important stages in our lives. That magazine accompanied us as we moved home alone. With the little room furnished for the little girl. With that belief that seemed impossible to finish alone.
I still seem to see the IKEA summer 2013 catalogue, the year after the wedding, to furnish my beach house. And what about the IKEA summer 2016 catalogue, with its reassuring images, prices and offers? I can't do it, too many memories!
From renovating the house to renewing the business model
After initially resisting online shopping, the company founded by Ingvar Kamprad was "forced" to welcome it during the pandemic, also because you couldn't even set foot in Ikea stores for many months.
The decision to abandon this house organ in paper format reflects the changing times, as mentioned. With the decline in readers of paper material (flyers, brochures) companies are increasingly turning to digital options (websites). IKEA catalog is no exception and has “abdicated” in favor of digital options. While this is a sad development for fans of the celebrated publication, it is indicative of the media consumption landscape. A way, perhaps the only one, to remain relevant and accessible to your audience.
An impediment that has become an advantage, it seems.
Ikea says its online retail sales (both those on offer below cost, and those of the new stock) have increased 45% worldwide last year with ikea.com which he recorded four billion visits. At IKEA you can find everything, historically, but it's not the assortment that matters this time. It's proximity. The company has also improved its suite of apps by opening smaller stores located in urban centers aimed at reaching people where they live.
IKEA catalog: the fall of the Gods
In terms of the message to the printed press, the choice to "close" the Catalog in paper form is gigantic.
At its peak in 2016, the IKEA catalog was distributed in 200 million copies and in 32 different languages.
It is, in fact, the largest publication in the world by volume, born in 1951. The IKEA catalog has several printed copies of the Bible, or the Koran.
Applause for the trees, a little relief, and despair for the supporters of the paper, a support destined to be further reduced.
The top 3 of the most beautiful
Now that the IKEA catalog is no longer printed, and that its digital version does not give the same "emotions", it is legitimate to indulge in nostalgia for the dear, old days gone by. With my very personal "treasure hunt" with the 5 most characteristic IKEA catalog covers, in reverse order of ranking (for suspense). Drumroll:
3rd place – IKEA catalog 1975 – I couldn't help but mention it. And not only because this is the year of my birth: on the cover, for the first time a "tone on tone", everything becomes fabric. The fabric of one of the most characteristic and practical armchairs: in a slightly different shape, it was also proposed again in subsequent years. Verdict: stainless.
2rd place – IKEA catalog 2013 – In a certain sense, the rediscovery of color. In the IKEA 2013 collection an icon (the one on the cover, the imperishable Strandmon armchair) contrasts with essential furnishings with dominant white or white and blue stripes, nautical. Boom in decorated cushions, since then not a year has passed without renewing the pillowcases :)
1rd place – IKEA catalog 2016
Here we are not moving far away, but the essential "modernity" of the early 10s is replaced by a more "languid" and environmentalist gaze, if you will allow me what may seem like a gamble, speaking of such a large industry. Exposed natural wood, child-proof furnishings and above all that large green logo (it's not random, nothing is left to chance) are the ideal frontispiece of the 2016 IKEA products marked by a single word: sustainability.
A final farewell
“For 70 years the IKEA catalog has been one of our most unique and iconic products, inspiring the furnishings of billions of people around the world,” he says Konrad Gruss, managing director of Inter IKEA Systems BV.
Overall media consumption and customer behavior have changed, and IKEA is already increasing digital investments across the internet while volumes and interest in the IKEA catalog have declined. Incontrovertible facts.
Konrad Gruss, managing director of Inter IKEA Systems BV.
The company says it will commemorate the catalog with a book launch in fall 2021.
Another piece of history that goes away.
On a display.
