Estonia, Good for Business, Internet, Lithuania, Retail

IKEA is set to invest half a million euros in the project in the four countries combined during the first year and additionally one million euros in each of the following years.

Olvir S. Sveinsson, chief information officer for IKEA in the Baltic countries and Iceland, said that the digital development team will focus on two main goals in the Baltic countries and Iceland: improving customer experience in all channels, and increasing the effectiveness of the work of the IKEA retail chain.

"The long-term objective is to make digital development the standard of our business. In the shorter-term perspective, we wish to improve the day-to-day functioning of the company," the spokesman said.

At this point the company has already determined 150 projects that are necessary for ensuring comprehensive digital competence.

IKEA is on the lookout for six team members for the Vilnius office who would bring into the team their expert know-how in project management, network architecture, Microsoft Dynamics NAV systems and web development.

The company is looking for specialists in Lithuania and other countries alike.

The most important projects for the new team will be developing new web solutions and integration of e-commerce in the Baltic countries and Iceland, the spokesman added.

IKEA announced at the beginning of this month that it is planning to open an online store in Estonia and establish a brick-and-mortar order and collection point along with a showroom in Tallinn in fall of this year. IKEA's order and collection point along with a showroom will be established in an existing warehouse building at 66 Peterburi Road in Tallinn that IKEA will rent and alter according to the stylistics. The total area of the building will be 6,000 square meters, of which 1,500 square meters is for the showroom and planning area.

In addition, Estonia will become the first country that IKEA will first enter digitally and open an online store before the existence of a physical store, the company said.

So far, IKEA has opened two stores in the Baltic states, one in Vilnius and one in Riga, as well as two order and collection points in Lithuania. On the global scale, IKEA is operating in 50 countries in which it has opened over 400 stores.