Analysts likened Ikea’s expansion to the awakening of a sleeping giant. Ikea already has around 50 U.S. stores, but it lags far behind Walmart and Wayfair in terms of retail market share.

Javier Quiñones, Ikea’s U.S. CEO and chief sustainability officer, describes the Swedish company’s U.S. business as a “love relation” that merits further investment. The company hasn’t yet decided where the new locations will be placed, he said, but it sees substantial online demand from parts of the country where it has no stores.

According to another Ikea executive quoted by Reuters, the company sees especially promising growth in the U.S. Southeast.

“We see that people want more of us, and we are not present in many areas of the United States,” Quiñones told The Post after the news broke on Thursday.

Ikea is in a stronger position than many of its retail competitors, some of which have struggled to maintain expectations in the face of flagging demand from inflation-weary consumers. Retail sales declined 1 percent in March, adding further evidence that the economy is cooling.

Walmart and Home Depot, for example, both recently dialed back their 2023 outlook. Wayfair, often seen as a more upscale alternative to Ikea, recently announced plans to lay off 1,750 people, representing 10 percent of its global workforce. Bed Bath & Beyond is a penny stock, with its shares worth $0.33 as of Thursday, and it may be headed for bankruptcy amid plunging sales and a mountain of debt.

By contrast, Ikea has managed to capitalize on its “value-for-money” business model, says Neil Saunders, managing director of data analytics company GlobalData. That helped the company net $5.9 billion in U.S. sales last year, bolstered by an 18.8 percent increase in its e-commerce sales.

Given inflation, “Ikea is the best value proposition to talk to people’s heart, but also to their brain,” Quiñones said. “Which means affordable, value for money, but also a smart purchase.”

The company is “under-potentialized” in the United States because it has historically hewed close to its big-box store model, featuring huge stores designed to pull in customers from far and wide, Saunders said. That strategy has worked well in the more densely populated U.K., for example, but it has been less effective in rural and suburban America, where drive times are often longer.

Accordingly, Ikea’s expansion is designed to build out its U.S. presence, giving its customers more physical touchpoints.

“It’s a good moment for Ikea to be closer to more people,” Quiñones said, adding that he views this expansion as a first step playing into loftier ambitions down the road.

Competitors should take notice, says GlobalData’s Saunders.

“While it will take time for IKEA to execute its plans, it is clear that a previously sleepy giant has woken up and is intent on making its mark,” Saunders said.