Ikea launched its first “low-carbon” delivery operation to its customers on Wednesday in Paris, by river over the Seine and then by road with electric vehicles. “We are the first major retailer to deliver to our customers in this way and it is also a world first for the group,” said Emilie Carpels, project manager for Ikea.
100% of Parisian customers will be delivered in this way by the end of 2022. The Swedish company plans to expand the river link with the opening in 2026 of a new distribution center on the Seine, in the port of Limay, in the Yvelines. On Tuesday night, a first barge from the Blue Line Logistics company, chartered by Ikea, left the distribution center that the Swedish brand has in Gennevilliers (Hauts-de-Seine) to arrive at the port of Bercy, in intramural Paris.
The six 18 m3 containers it was carrying were then loaded Wednesday morning onto the chassis of electric vans to ensure delivery to Parisian customers. Each of these “boxes” can contain up to 13 commands. For January, Ikea aims to unload 35 boxes each morning, which will represent 455 orders per day.
An initiative acclaimed by the Paris City Council
Online sales represent 20% of Ikea’s turnover in France, up from 10% in 2019. The goal, according to the president of Ikea France, Johan Laurell, is to deliver electricity to all these customers through vehicles by 2025. Pierre Rabadan , deputy mayor of Paris, responsible in particular for the Seine, welcomed this operation which “will make it possible to decongest the streets of Paris”.
According to Ikea, river transport between Gennevilliers and Paris will save some 300,000 kilometers that used to be traveled each year by truck.
Source: BFM TV
