IKEA expected India to behave like its Western markets. Indians wanted local woodwork, not flat-pack.

IKEA's India expansion has underperformed internal projections by 40-50% across its stores. The expected pattern — disrupt local carpentry-led furniture markets — never materialised. Indian middle-class buyers continue to prefer custom woodwork from local carpenters at similar price points for major furniture pieces. IKEA's strength in India is in smaller items: storage, lighting, kitchen accessories, and rental-friendly pieces. For sofas, beds, and dining tables, the local-carpenter route still dominates. The structural reason: Indian homes vary in size and proportions far more than European ones, and made-to-measure is genuinely competitive on price.