Let us compare Wayfair vs. Ikea on features, pricing, shopping experience, product range, and ease of ordering to determine the best budget furniture brand between the two giants.
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Furniture forms an essential part of home decor. High-quality furniture brings your home to life and gives you peace of mind for years to come. However, people believe that beautiful and durable furniture has to be expensive.
Well, two brands, Wayfair and Ikea, have been busting this myth for many years now. Both brands have brought affordable yet elegant furniture to their customers. Since they are so similar to each other in price, our readers often ask us: “Wayfair vs. Ikea: which one is better?” In this article, we are doing this Wayfair vs. Ikea comparison in detail.
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Ikea Furniture Store
IKEA was founded in 1943 as a mail-order sales company and then switched to a furniture seller after five years. It makes modern and minimalist furniture available to the customer at a cheaper price point than other brands.
Flat Packing
Their furniture design is simple, functional, and sleek. The vision behind IKEA is to make the life of suppliers, workers, and buyers better, and they have been successful in doing so.
Most IKEA furniture comes in a flat-packed box, and the furniture needs to be assembled by the buyer. Self-assembly has many benefits: it eases transportation and delivery, reduces the furniture cost, and lets a buyer be involved in decorating their home.
Reusable Components
Most Ikea furniture has parts and components that are reusable across their range of products, which means that you can easily find spare parts and components.
Sustainable
They make all their furniture from sustainable materials, which helps reduce the negative impact on the environment. This policy of IKEA brings a positive change in society.
IKEA products have a design suitable for our current living conditions, and all the products have a low price that is affordable for most buyers. This “democratic design” influences the design and function of every item they create.
Pricing
IKEA has a unique pricing system, and all the items price ends with nine. It is to make the cost more attractive and the psychology that people read from left to right and thus for a price of $3.99, it feels like $3 and not $4.
Pros
- Ikea offers a one-year return policy on all its products.
- On some products, IKEA offers a limited warranty.
- They have products in several designs, fabrics, and styles.
- They have a flat rate fee on shipping.
- All the furniture is available at a lower price.
- There are several Ikea showrooms across the USA and many other countries.
Cons
- The products are mass-produced, and that results in lower quality.
- There is no free shipping.
- Ikea does not have an in-home delivery option, and the buyer has to set up their products on their own.
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Wayfair Furniture
Wayfair is one of the famous and largest furniture brands in the world. They have a reputation for providing modern, stylish furniture at a bare minimum price. Wayfair works on the idea that everyone should have a home that they love.
E-commerce
Wayfair was founded in 2002 with an idea to sell stereo stands and racks online. It is an e-commerce brand of furniture and other household accessories. They do not have any retail outlets, except for one in Natick, Massachusetts.
Wide Product Range
They are available online with a user-friendly website that is easy to navigate through, and they have a collection of more than fourteen million products from which you can choose. You can shop from multiple designs and styles of products from each category.
Wayfair offers a wide range of furnishings, decor, storage, home improvement, outdoor essentials, and other products for the home.
They offer a product range of more than 14 million and are available over five websites. They also have around 80 house brands that categorize different products into different classes.
Policies
Even though they operate on a large scale, they maintain the quality of their products, and customer satisfaction is their priority. They offer high-quality products, deliver them to your doorstep, provide better customer service, and have a fair return policy.
Reselling Business
Please note that Wayfair is not the manufacturer of any of the products that it sells. It works on a drop-ship model. Wayfair has over 11,000 suppliers. This model means that whenever you place an order on Wayfair, Wayfair first purchases the product from one of its manufacturers and then ships it to your location.
Pros
- They offer at-home delivery and setup.
- Most of the furniture comes with a 30 days return policy.
- You can buy protection plans with your purchases.
- You can buy millions of items from multiple brands and of different styles, fabrics, colors, and fabrics all at the same place.
- On orders above $49, you will get free shipping.
- You will find items in every price range.
Cons
- The cost for in-home delivery is extra.
- The returns are time-bound, and there are several restrictions on the returns.
- There is no warranty on the products.
- You have to shop online, and there are no showrooms.
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Wayfair Vs. Ikea: Feature Comparison
Shopping Experience
Ikea is a furniture and other home essentials brand with an e-commerce website and has several stores in multiple countries. The shopping experience on the website is good, and the search option at the top lets you search for what you want.
In terms of the retail experience, Ikea has 52 stores in the US and 445 stores worldwide. The in-store shopping experience at Ikea is fun for the family, and their in-house cafeteria is famous for its Swedish meatballs. It can, however, be time-consuming.
Wayfair is an eCommerce company for furniture and other household essentials with just one actual store in Massachusetts. Their website is user-friendly, the shopping process is quite easy.
Winner: Ikea, for its presence both online and in retail
Product Range
Wayfair offers one of the largest ranges of furniture with over 80 house brands. They offer beds, sofas, sectionals, and furniture for the whole house.
IKEA offers an extensive range of furniture for every area in your home and also kitchen accessories. You can find anything from beds, sofas, dining tables to sectionals and several other home accessories.
Winner: Wayfair. Apart from their house brands, they also resell, which makes their product selection wider.
Price Range
Due to the wide range of products, pricing is difficult to compare on an overall basis. We can compare price ranges across sets of products:
- Sofas: Wayfair has sofas ranging from $66 (single-seater futons) to $22,600 (antique 3-seater) whereas Ikea has sofas ranging from $249 (loveseat) to $3,749 (5-seater sectional)
- Coffee Tables: Wayfair: $66.99 to $15,800.Ikea: $99 to $309.
- Beds: Wayfair: $239.99 to $25,500. Ikea: $149 to $849.
Winner: Wayfair has a larger range of prices.
Ease Of Ordering
Once you place an order on Wayfair, your product’s shipping will take about one to three weeks, but it can be sooner than that. You will get free delivery over orders above $49. You can return most of the items and get a refund or store credits that you can use for your next purchase.
IKEA takes about one to two weeks to deliver your order. However, you would need to pay $39 to $59 for more oversized furniture. IKEA offers a one-year return policy on all its products as long as they are not damaged. IKEA provides limited warranties on some of the products. You can find suitable ratings for both brands at Wayfair vs. Ikea Reddit forums.
Winner: Ikea, because of quicker deliveries
Brand Comparison
Talking of the purposes of both the stores, they have both similarities and differences. Both the brands are value-oriented, and both have an established set of corporate rules. However, Ikea enjoys more business years than Wayfair, and they enjoy the reputation of giving their dues back to the communities better than the latter. Wayfair’s online stores help the brand grow better than Ikea, which has physical stores.
Winner: Ikea, for its community work
Online Presence
Though both the brands have an online presence, Wayfair defeats Ikea to impact online stores.
The reason is that Wayfair has already become an e-commerce giant in the furniture section. On the other hand, Ikea is making a mark in the online sector, but it has a long road to cover in terms of online popularity.
Winner: Wayfair has a better online presence because of its single-minded focus on the online store business.
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Wayfair Vs. Ikea: Answers To Common Questions
How is Wayfair different from Ikea?
Wayfair and Ikea are both brands dealing in furniture retail, selling them at wholesale prices. However, there are some differences between the working models of both brands.
- Whereas Wayfair offers free shipping for products ranging above $49, Ikea asks for shipping costs.
- Wayfair has a 30-day return policy, whereas Ikea offers a 365-day return policy.
- Wayfair is an online brand, whereas Ikea has physical stores for its customers.
Is Wayfair high quality?
The products found on the Wayfair sites are of good quality. However, the firm is not manufacturing the products it is selling. Thus, the firm allows the customers to return or exchange their purchased products at no extra cost.
Is Amazon better than Wayfair?
Amazon does rates better than Wayfair on a comparison scale. However, though Amazon does offer better discounts and deals for their Prime members, Wayfair gives a better and organized shopping experience to their customers.
Who is Ikea’s most significant competitor?
Ikea’s significant competitors include Walmart, Amazon, Wayfair, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Groupe SEB.
Are Ikea products manufactured in China?
Though most Ikea’s products are designed in Sweden, most of their manufacturing occurs in China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Romania, and Poland.
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Wayfair Vs. Ikea: Final Words
You should go for Wayfair if you are an online-first buyer looking for a broad range of products across multiple price ranges.
But if you are looking specifically for modern and sleek furniture or like to shop retail, Ikea is the brand to go for. They deliver quickly and have a bigger brand name.
