Speaking with Reuters Monday (Jan. 19), Ingka Group CEO Juvencio Maeztu said that adhering to consistency and not overreacting on pricing is critical for retailers as shoppers look for stability.
The report notes that IKEA has cut prices in the last two years — after raising them due to COVID-related supply chain interruptions — as steep inflation and weak housing markets caused consumer demand to wane.
“Companies want to have predictability and stability, but consumers also want to have stability in prices,” Maeztu told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “You have to secure stability as much as possible in the low prices.”
The report notes that IKEA has been forced to raise prices on some products in the U.S. due to tariffs. Maeztu declined to speculate on the outcome of a Supreme Court case on the legality of those duties.
“What we are learning is we need to take things as they come, one by one,” he said.
“We cannot overreact, especially in pricing. We need to keep some kind of consistency,” he said, adding it was more important than ever to “zoom out” from short-term disruptions.
Ingka, which makes up 87% of IKEA sales, reported its lowest yearly sales since 2021 in October, after slashing prices. Maeztu added that consumer sentiment across markets is now a “mix of being cautious and optimistic, both at the same time.”
That’s in keeping with recent findings from the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which, as PYMNTS wrote last week, shows consumers are “mildly optimistic,” though that optimism is “paired with careful adjustment rather than exuberance.”
Meanwhile, research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows a sharp decline in perceptions about job security among hourly and lower-income workers. PYMNTS Intelligence found that job-security sentiment among labor-economy workers dropped 6.7 points month over month, even as overall sentiment ticked up slightly.
Taken together, the Beige Book and PYMNTS Intelligence data point to an economy where employment is holding, but confidence is fragile. Workers may still have jobs, yet concerns about hours, pay stability and future prospects are shaping spending and credit behavior.
“Consumers are still spending, businesses are still investing and labor markets are still functioning,” PYMNTS wrote. “But momentum heading into 2026 will depend less on headline employment figures and more on whether job security, income stability and price pressures ease enough to broaden consumer participation beyond the highest earners.”
