Armchair shopping open for IKEA fans

PETALING JAYA (July 3): Being a household name for household products, IKEA may be the first to pop to mind when you think about getting a dining set, an office chair or even a small potted plant.

While it may be worth your while to browse through the massive furnishing store searching for the right bed frame, some may find the journey and the crowd too laborious just to get a RM2.70 double-sided photo frame.

For the latter group, you may now shop from the comfort of an armchair, because IKEA Online store for Malaysia was officially opened last week.

With similar functions to typical e-commerce sites, IKEA fans will find that they can easily buy almost everything available from its brick-and-mortar cousin. Only certain items without the “Buy Online” button requires you to employ the traditional shopping method to acquire them.  

However, before you start loading up items on your virtual cart, you may want to do some calculation on whether the delivery fees are worth paying for your purchase.

For smaller items, you may choose the parcel delivery method, which will set you back by RM40. Otherwise, you may want to wait till you confirm which bookshelf you want before you click on that 20cm vase, so you can have everything delivered by truck delivery, which is RM98, RM140 and RM235 for yellow, blue and pink zones respectively. Delivery to condos and gated residences are limited to weekdays only before 5pm.

East Malaysians too can now get to fit out their homes with these Swedish furnishings, as shipping is available at RM100 for parcel, RM675 for truck delivery (in Kuching, Miri and Kota Kinabalu) and RM575 for Click & Collect. There is more information on shipping cost through its online shop.   

Assembling service is also available at 10% of the price of the item. For now, payment options are limited to Visa and Master debit and credit cards only.