QUESTION 1:
IKEA after being well established in the European market they have decided to expand their business into US market as they see enormous opportunity due to its vast market, which gives IKEA to improvise its business performance to a greater extend.
IKEA have adopted on relying primarily on third-party manufacturers, IKEA’s engineers design a low-cost modular furniture that customers can easily assemble, and they specifically focused on serving for young customers who desires style for a low cost. The furniture’s in IKEA were designed clean-lined and appealing in a Euro-Style.
This provides IKEA a competitive advantage over its competitors in US which sells more expensive line of furniture, this advantage is essential for IKEA since there are many strong retailers who are well established in US thus, this will give an upper hand for IKEA as being a new entrant for the market.
However there are some possible challenges that might be faced by IKEA when entering the US market and this needed to be identified before entering the market.

1.1 ONE FOR ALL
One of the major problem that IKEA might be facing in US will be caused by its concept of one for all. This concept can be a major obstacle for its performance in US as IKEA unwilling to adapt the size of furniture according the market’s demand, since IKEA wants to have one type globally.
This can be huge drawback for IKEA as failing to fulling the demand of customers can lead to its own downfall, which satisfying customers form the foundation of any successful business as customer satisfaction leads to repeat purchase, brand loyalty, and positive word of mouth.
Adding to that US customers are not familiar with IKEA’s concept, where US retailers usually serve their customers with well assembled furniture which is also will be delivered to their homes. The luxury retailers usually provides high-touch sales consultants who would assist customers with measurement and product selection and arranges the delivery effectively and efficiently. Contrariwise, IKEA does not practice this model and they insist on standardisation of both product and services where their furniture are on same size and they would not provide assembled goods and deliver them.
Thus, introducing a new concept may cause IKEA to fail to perform in the US market as it’s against US people’s practices, and by not adapting to it will make the customers to look for an alternative choices.
When looking into non-luxury retailers, they are mostly the low end retailers such as the famous Wal-Mart. These general merchandise retailers tended to aggressively promote their furniture products on the basis of low pricing among these retailers and their prime target group is like IKEA the young groups with low income.
Thus, IKEA will be facing huge dilemma since their cost leadership strategy is void in US market as there are many firms who have better strategy. Adding to this, by being persistent about their one for all can cause IKEA to lose in the market as there are existing competitors who have better establishment such as Wal-Mart who have a lot of information about their customers and suppliers, which is lacking with IKEA who without any prior market understanding, assumes that US market can accept their product and this can be a huge drawback for IKEA.