IKEA’s Loyalty Program: Built for Rewards or More Assembly Required?
Sweden has gifted us many wonderful things—ABBA, Spotify, H&M, Volvo—and of course, IKEA.
Fun fact for your trivia night: IKEA stands for the founder's initials (Ingvar Kamprad), his family farm (Elmtaryd), and his hometown (Agunnaryd). Frankly, we’re glad he abbreviated it. “Let’s go shopping at Ingvar Kamprad Elmtaryd Agunnaryd” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
IKEA has been around since 1943, but somehow it took them over 80 years to launch a U.S. rewards program. The debut of IKEA Family in 2025 came with a flurry of press and the hopeful dreams of customers ready to earn points for their sweat equity assembling flat-pack furniture.
We put it all together so you don’t have to.
Photo credit: Shutterstock
How you earn:
Good news first: IKEA Family is a free and simple points program and far less complicated than their assembly instructions.
You earn:
1 point per $1 spent
But you can also earn up to 3,245 points per year without buying a single item, just by engaging with their site:
Sign up for IKEA Family profile – 50 points
Create online account (web/app) – 25 points
Save a product to your wish list – 25 points per week
Create/save a kitchen or sofa design in their planning tool – 25 points per week
Create a gift registry – 50 points
Share your gift registry – 10 points per week
They’re also offering $20 off your first in-store purchase for new members. And if you’re a college student, you’ll get a one-time 15% discount. (Just one-time though. C’mon IKEA, let the students have one win per year at least.)
Other perks include:
Member-only pricing and coupons
Free coffee and tea in-store
90-day price protection
Free shipping on small orders over $50
A buy-back and resell program for gently used furniture (a win for sustainability)
But here’s the head-scratcher: Despite being called IKEA Family, the fine print states “benefits are not transferable and can only be used by the registered individual.” Um… so the family program can’t be used by the actual family? Sounds like legal and marketing didn’t align on that Zoom call.
How you Redeem:
You can redeem points online or in-store for:
Restaurant/Bistro deals (free frozen treat, $5 off, or free entrées)
Delivery discounts ($10–$50 off)
Merchandise rewards ($5–$20 off)
The site makes it easy to track your point balance and shows exactly what you can redeem for. Just apply rewards online or scan your voucher in-store. We’re fans of this level of flexibility that points can be used across multiple parts of the IKEA experience.
But is it actually worth it?
What’s the value?
(Note: by “return value” we mean how much are you save relative to how much you had to spend to earn it. For example, if you spent $100 to earn enough points to redeem $10, that’s a 10% return value).
As the famous idiom goes, ‘the proof is in the pudding’, but in this case we’ll change it to ‘the proof is in the meatballs’ when putting this program to the test.
Calculating return value for IKEA’s program will be slightly misleading since they allow point earning on more than just merchandise. As we mentioned prior, you could earn over 3,000 points from online engagement without buying anything,
When analyzing return value purely based on product spend:
· Most redemption options equate to 2.86% return value
It’s also important to note that these awards cannot be stacked nor combined with any other IKEA coupons. That’s flimsier than their particle board shelves.
Our other big gripe is that discounts on purchases caps at $20. Considering IKEA runs can go into the hundreds of dollars (or sometimes more) a $20 award limit per transaction seems awfully low. It would be better if you could hoard points to cash them in for a bigger discount.
Finally, it seems there is overemphasis on the program providing benefits for their restaurant. I know it has it’s fan base, but IKEA’s profits are not in their food, it’s in the home décor.
🕵️♂️ THE Fine Print
You bet. IKEA basically invented fine print (have you seen their assembly manuals?).
👍🏻 The good:
No point-earning cap
Points post within 72 hours
👎🏻 The bad:
Points expire after 18 months
Awards can’t be stacked or combined
Forget to scan in-store? You’re out of luck
OUR VERDICT:
We’re not racing down the aisles singing “Dancing Queen,” but we’re not flipping the table either.
There’s some value here—especially for IKEA regulars. ✅ We like the digital engagement point earning options,✅ free drinks when you shop, and ✅ decent-sized new-member coupon.
But low redemption values, small award caps, and a “family” program that excludes family use? That all leaves us wanting more. 😒
If you’re a frequent IKEA shopper, sign up. Just temper your expectations. You’re not being swindled, but this program is more allen wrench than power drill when it comes to real savings.
Rewarded or Robbed?
(small time) REWARDED! 🪛
Leave us a comment! Do you agree or disagree? Any further tips about IKEA Family?
