The challenge
Since its launch, ikea.com had primarily acted as a gateway to local market sites. As IKEA’s digital ecosystem matured, the ambition expanded. The global site needed to become a destination in its own right: a place for inspiration, storytelling, corporate communications, and brand-building, while still supporting one of the company’s most important commercial goals: guiding visitors into local shopping experiences.
Creating a platform that could serve consumers, journalists, partners, and stakeholders across more than 70 countries required a careful balance between editorial flexibility, brand consistency, accessibility, and performance.
Operating at global scale
Since 2021, Most Studios has partnered with IKEA to continuously evolve ikea.com as a global digital platform.
- 10+ million monthly visitors
- Audiences across 70+ countries
- Content consumed in every major region worldwide
- A cross-functional team spanning design, UX, strategy, content, and development
- Ongoing collaboration with IKEA’s internal product, brand, content, and accessibility teams
Working at this scale means every design decision must balance consistency, usability, governance, and long-term maintainability.
From country picker to global brand platform
What began as a simple country selector has evolved into IKEA’s global editorial ecosystem. Today, ikea.com serves as the home for three distinct content experiences:
- Stories – IKEA’s editorial destination for inspiration, home furnishing ideas, design collaborations, and collection launches.
- Newsroom – A communications hub for journalists and media, featuring company announcements, sustainability initiatives, innovation updates, and spokesperson resources.
- Our Business – A corporate destination that provides transparency into Inter IKEA Group, including annual reports, strategic priorities, and company information.
Together, these experiences help IKEA communicate consistently across audiences while strengthening the relationship between brand storytelling and commerce.
Extending IKEA’s design system for editorial experiences
To support the growing complexity of ikea.com, Most Studios developed a complementary design system built on top of IKEA’s own design framework, SKAPA. The system introduces more expressive editorial components while remaining aligned with IKEA’s established visual language.
This enables teams to publish richer stories, reports, and brand content without compromising consistency across the wider IKEA ecosystem. The result is a scalable foundation that supports both governance and creative flexibility across a continuously evolving platform.
Built for accessibility at scale
As new European accessibility requirements were introduced, IKEA initiated a comprehensive effort to align the platform with WCAG 2.1 AA standards.
Working closely with IKEA’s internal accessibility specialists, Most Studios helped improve accessibility across the experience through enhanced keyboard navigation, improved color contrast, media accessibility, responsive layouts, focus states, skip navigation patterns, and support for high-zoom usage scenarios.
Accessibility became a core design principle rather than a compliance exercise, ensuring the platform remains usable for the broadest possible audience.
Results
- Time spent on custom-designed editorial experiences doubled compared to previous article formats.
- Navigation into deeper Stories and Newsroom content increased by 100%.
- Strengthened connections between editorial content and local market sites through integrated product discovery experiences.
- Continued growth of ikea.com as IKEA’s global destination for brand, editorial, and corporate communication.
A digital home for everything IKEA
Today, ikea.com serves as IKEA’s global digital brand platform: a destination that combines inspiration, storytelling, corporate communications, and commerce across audiences and markets. Through a long-term partnership with IKEA, Most Studios continues to help shape an experience that reaches millions of visitors every month while staying true to one of the world’s most recognized brands.