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Billy shelf gets cheaper: Ikea changes detail to popular classic and drastically lowers price

2023-05-12T03:39:15.132Z

Highlights: The Billy shelf is an absolute bestseller among Ikea furniture. Since its launch in 1979, the product has sold over 140 million units. In Germany, a Billy shelf measuring 80x28x202 cm costs 59.99 euros in white and 69.00 euros in wood look (as of May 9, 2023) The switch to paper film is expected to result in cost savings of 25 to 30 percent – from which customers should benefit. The last time the product was revised was before 1999 – almost 25 years ago.



You can find it in millions of households – Ikea furniture. One of the absolute classics is now being changed and is to become cheaper: the Billy shelf.

Munich – Ikea is the global market leader among furniture stores, and one or the other product can be found in most German households. Whether it's the Malm chest of drawers in the living room or the lacquer side table next to the bed - the furniture giant has a number of products in its range that have become classics. But hardly any of them come close to the cult status of the Billy shelf. For customers, the piece of furniture will soon be even cheaper to buy. As the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal reports, the shelf will be optimized.

FurnitureIKEA
BranchesOver 450 worldwide
ProductBilly Shelf

Billy shelf: The absolute classic among Ikea furniture is to become cheaper

The Billy shelf is an absolute bestseller among Ikea furniture. Since its launch in 1979, the product has sold over 140 million units (as of May 9, 2023). According to Ikea, a Billy shelf is even bought somewhere in the world every five seconds, which corresponds to over six million sales a year. It is so popular that there have already been problems with the delivery of the Billy shelf due to shortages.

The Billy shelf is one of the classics of Ikea furniture. According to Ikea, a shelf will even be sold every six seconds. (Symbolic image) © Arne Dedert/dpa

The popular shelf is offered in two versions – white and wood look. The last time the product was revised was before 1999 – almost 25 years ago. At that time, a white film was used instead of white lacquer, so the price could be reduced by about 20 percent and has since been cheaper than the wood-look version. In Germany, a Billy shelf measuring 80x28x202 cm costs 59.99 euros in white and 69.00 euros in wood look (as of May 9, 2023). Now the price of the wood-look product is also set to fall.

Billy shelf is getting cheaper because of new paper foil – it's already being used on other Ikea products

Most of the furniture at Ikea is not made of solid wood, instead chipboard is used, which is covered with thin slices of wood. In the future, this wood coating on the Billy shelf is to be replaced by a paper film. The development of this paper liner began almost 20 years ago and has been continuously developed since then. In some products, the wood paneling has already been replaced, such as the Pax cabinet. However, according to a survey, the Ikea product often causes a high pulse among customers for other reasons.

The switch to paper film is expected to result in cost savings of 25 to 30 percent – from which customers should benefit. "Our budget is customers' wallets, and their wallets are smaller than ever," said Susanne Waidzunas, Global Supply Manager at Inter IKEA Holding BV. This is the company that owns the Ikea brand and develops the products.

Billy shelf is being changed – the Ikea classic is to become cheaper for customers

In addition to the popular Billy shelf, other Ikea products have also been optimized to reduce costs. These include, for example, the Flintan office chair, which uses smaller armrests, among other things. It is unlikely that customers will be scared off by such changes, Tom Higgs, a furniture designer and lecturer at Brunel University in London, told the Wall Street Journal. Customers would primarily look for inexpensive and practical furniture.

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However, payment is not only made with money, in an Ikea store a concept was tested in which customers could pay with the travel time they needed to the store. But the furniture giant is not only making headlines with its products, Ikea's Facebook page was recently hacked and showed disturbing images there. (Kiba)

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2023-05-12

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