What: Ikea and Best Buy are partnering to create in-store planning and shopping experiences, blending furniture, appliances, and expert advice across 10 U.S. locations.

Why it is important: This collaboration reflects a broader industry trend of strategic partnerships and experiential retail, enabling brands to reach new audiences and enhance customer engagement.

Ikea has entered into its first U.S. shop-in-shop partnership with Best Buy, launching curated planning and shopping experiences in 10 stores across Texas and Florida. These in-store Ikea shops feature immersive vignettes that combine Ikea’s home furnishings with Best Buy’s appliances, allowing customers to design kitchen and laundry spaces while receiving guidance from both Ikea and Best Buy staff. Select locations also serve as free pick-up points for Ikea products purchased online, enhancing omnichannel convenience. This collaboration exemplifies the growing trend of retailers leveraging strategic partnerships and store-in-store concepts to drive foot traffic, differentiate their offerings, and create engaging, cross-category experiences. The initiative coincides with Best Buy’s holiday push, which includes immersive tech showcases and AI-powered experiences, intensifying competition for consumer attention and setting new standards for experiential retail in the U.S.

IADS Notes: Ikea’s partnership with Best Buy to launch shop-in-shop concepts across 10 U.S. locations marks a significant evolution in retail collaboration, blending home furnishing expertise with technology leadership to create a comprehensive, cross-category shopping experience (Retail Dive, August 2025). This initiative is part of Ikea’s broader strategy of retail format innovation and urban accessibility, as seen in its major investments in city-center locations like London’s Oxford Street and experiential pop-ups such as the ‘Hus of Frakta’ (Financial Times, May 2025; Fashion United, November 2024). The collaboration mirrors a wider industry trend of retailers leveraging partnerships and store-in-store models to drive foot traffic, differentiation, and mutual growth, as illustrated by Magasin du Nord’s Lindex shop-in-shop (Press Release, March 2025). These developments are underpinned by the growing importance of omnichannel integration and experiential retail, with smart store technologies and engaging environments now central to customer experience and operational efficiency (Journal du Net, January 2025; The Robin Report, January 2025). The timing of the Ikea-Best Buy partnership, coinciding with Best Buy’s holiday innovation push and the sector’s competitive race for digital engagement, highlights the strategic value of such alliances in today’s rapidly evolving retail landscape (Store Brands, November 2025).

Best Buy opens first-ever in-store Ikea shops in select locations