From “Select a Country”
to “Enter ZIP code”

The December 1998 capture is the oldest we use, and it is a portal called IKEA Worldwide, at ikea.com/content/. Five yellow buttons run down the left: better living, living with kids, product guide, about IKEA and IKEA near you. Each has a line of text under it, and the one for about IKEA asks What’s in a name?

The orange column on the right is the news. Its first item is a tool: Create a custom IVAR storage system with the IVAR design tool to make the most out of your space. Then print a list of components to take to your IKEA store. The next one is about the holidays, and the third says We’ve recently opened one of the largest IKEA stores in the world, IKEA Chicago.

There is no cart, and no prices. IKEA’s first website had gone up in 1997, and its products couldn’t be bought online until 2001.^[1]

In 1998 IKEA had wanted to put the whole catalog on the web, but due to the complexity with IT-systems the launch was postponed. The first catalog that did go online was a special edition with furniture for offices.^[2]

In May 1999 the portal looks the same, and the country menu now has two sections. Its code lists ten COUNTRY SITES, from Canada to the United States, and then the countries with stores. The news column has a second design tool, for an armchair: the "your POÄNG" design tool allows you to find the right cushion, colour and frame for your style. Another item sends readers to the new IKEA Canada site.

The August 2000 capture adds a round badge to the top of the news column, Brighter Living, for a lighting guide. By then the menu has 15 country sites. Another item reports that International competitions recognise IKEA for product innovation and ecologically friendly designs.

The bare address ikea.com stayed a country picker for a while longer. In January 2001 it listed Spain twice, as Spanish Mainland and Spanish Islands, and offered a link for anyone who didn’t see their country: Click here for the IKEA global site.^[3] From here on we follow the American site.

In April 2001 the American site has its own address, ikea-usa.com, and a white page. Three panels sit at the top, Products, Rooms & Ideas and Store locator; most of their pictures don’t render in this capture. The first item under them is catalog request: Register here for the 2001 IKEA catalog. The second is Internet orders, and it doesn’t take any. It says Click here to find out how you can place an order over the internet.

That year IKEA launched e-commerce for the first time, in Sweden and Denmark.^[2] The American page’s code has a Swedish accent. In the 2001, 2002 and 2003 captures a block of the page is wrapped in two comments, <!-- start --> and <!-- slut -->. Slut is Swedish for end.^[8]

By May 2002 a cartoon sun sits beside Home Shopping and Fast. Easy. Convenient. The catalog is on the screen now: Flip through our virtual 2002 catalog online. The link runs a script that opens it in a separate window, 750 pixels wide and 429 tall.

The March 2003 capture is the emptiest of the 29. Most of its images don’t render, so the screenshot is largely white, but the small print survived. One box says visit the unböring community, umlaut included. Another is a Safety Recall for the IKEA SNUTTIG toy. The store locator menu, closed in the screenshot, lists 15 American stores from Baltimore to Woodbridge, an entry for Home Shopping and, under coming soon:, Costa Mesa, Covina and East Palo Alto.

The June 2004 page puts a row of five photo tiles across the middle, and the first one introduces a helper: Anna, from the IKEA Help Center, is here to offer you quick and direct answers for your IKEA related questions. Before calling your local store, try asking Anna! Another tile announces a new & improved 2004 kitchen planner, with a warning: if you installed the old one, you will need to uninstall it before downloading the new version.

The product menu still looks unfinished. In the HTML it has the label browse products here and one option, test. The store menu now has 18 stores and six coming soon, Phoenix and Atlanta among them.

Our June 2005 capture of the American homepage is at ikea.com/ms/en_US/. A blue map of the United States fills the top right, above a line in small type: 3 ways to shop at IKEA - at our stores, online, or by phone - 1-800-434-IKEA! The first entry in the store menu isn’t a store. It is IKEA Direct Online Shopping.

Down the left runs a blue list of 22 product links, and one of them is For the pets, between rugs and furniture care. This is the first of our captures with product prices on the homepage: a TÄRNÖ table for 29.99, a TÄRNÖ folding chair for 24.99, an ODLA tray with three plant pots for 2.99. Above them a promise has lost a letter: For every plant sold $4.99 and above, IKEA donates $1.00 to American Forests to plan a tree.

The July 2006 capture keeps the map and the list and swaps the garden furniture at the top for a kitchen photo.

By our June 2007 capture the homepage is at ikea.com/us/en/, where it still is in 2026. A big kitchen photo says A kitchen for every personality, and Anna has a corner of her own, a cartoon portrait under Need Help? Ask Anna. A box headed Important Announcements! reads IKEA recalls jars of herring, PARODI glass vases, and outdoor candles ÄNGAR or SAMLAS 6-pks.

The store menu has 28 entries, and one of them is Bolingrook, IL. In the 2008 capture it is spelled Bolingbrook. Before the page itself starts, the code lists keyboard shortcuts, from The key combination "ALT" + 1 skips to Homepage to ALT + 7 for Contact us.

In April 2008 the top of the page was a Flash animation, which our screenshot can’t replay, so the space is blank apart from a black news banner. The code keeps the message for visitors without the plugin: Unfortunately, you need a newer version of Adobe Flash Player to take a look at this content. Don't worry, it's easy. The link to the Spanish site, Spanish language site in 2007, now says Información en español. The June 2009 capture keeps the grid of tiles under a mostly yellow menu bar.

The May 2010 and June 2011 captures start with the same kind of blank space, where Flash animations played. Below it, the 2010 page sells a KARLSTAD sofa series and a media storage planner. The 2011 page has a phone: Download our iPhone App:, next to an image labeled iPhone App for Online Catalog. On the same line is an idea from 1998, in new words: Going to the store? Make a shopping list to print out and take with you.

The store menu now sorts by state, AZ, Tempe first, and lists 38 stores.

In February 2012 the top of the page is a photo again, of a dark wardrobe: WHAT CAN PAX DO FOR YOU? The price is $350, with last year’s price $415 underneath. The app line has grown to three buttons, one each for the iPhone, Android and iPad catalog apps. Anna is still on the left, under Have a Question?

In May 2013 the boxes give way to full-width photos: a sofa for $499, Capture the beauty of summer, Bring your home into full bloom. The blue and yellow oval logo, gone from the page since 2007, is back at the top left.

Halfway down, next to the IKEA FAMILY offers, a tile says Always a tasty offer! and prices a plate of meatballs at $4.99. Its text ends with all of our meatballs are 100% approved by the USDA. The image’s alt text, which visitors don’t see, is more direct: IKEA US Meatball Content is Only Pork and Meat Products.

Three months before this capture, Czech food inspectors had found horse meat DNA in IKEA frozen meatballs labeled beef and pork. IKEA pulled the batch in more than a dozen European countries and said shipments to the US weren’t affected.^[4]

The next three captures stack big photo tiles with short headlines on colored panels. In May 2014 the first banner says MAKE A FRESH START, and farther down is a promotion for IKEA PS 2014. In June 2015 a garden says It’s time to move life outside, and a black and white panel of children asks Let’s raise over 2,000,000 meals in one month!

A STUDY IN STYLE, a back-to-college promotion, runs on both the 2015 and 2016 pages. On the 2016 page it is the first tile, with Summer is here, and the living is beautiful under it. Both pages also carry two words that stay on the homepage for years, Secure it!: under the menu in 2015, and as a big panel in 2016.

By May 2017 a block of small blue links sits under the menu, headed News:. One is Product Recall of MALM and Other Models of Chests and Dressers, and the last is Secure it! Learn how to prevent furniture tip-over accidents. The deals come in big orange numbers: Get this month’s top deals, 15% off sofas for IKEA FAMILY members, sleeper sofas excluded.

The May 2018 page has a slimmer menu bar with a smaller logo. IKEA Museum dates the logo’s last update to 2018, the first since the 1980s, made for legibility in a digital world.^[5] We can’t tell the two versions apart at the size of these screenshots. The recall links still sit under the menu, and the MALM one now comes first: Safety Recall of MALM Chests and Dressers. Act now to make sure your home is safe. Further down, a teal tile says Working together to create a safer home.

The 2018 code has a surprise. Inside the homepage sit seven more complete web pages, each with its own title: Credit Card Launch, PW 21 - SJALLAND, PW 21 - PAX and four others. The PAX one is the wardrobe offer, valid May 23 - June 3, 2018.

In May 2019 IKEA FAMILY members get 20% off mattresses over $150, and a tile with a power drill says Need help assembling your new furniture? We got you. The logo next to it is TaskRabbit’s.

The April 2020 capture opens with that message in a black bar. Under it is a new design: a white menu bar with Offers, New Lower Price and Last Chance, a long search field. The big picture at the top renders as a gray box with two arrows. Among the small tiles under it are Shopping with delivery and a link to IKEA’s chest and dresser recalls.

The page’s code still links to View the catalog. On December 7, 2020, IKEA announced the catalog’s end;^[2] the 2021 edition, out in autumn 2020, was the last one printed.^[6]

A year later, in June 2021, the black bar says Updates on safe shopping in our stores. The top of the page is a green card, Find new ways to explore your kitchen, beside a photo of a kitchen wall rail with hanging baskets and utensils.

In our May 2022 capture the homepage greets you in Swedish, at the top right: Hej! Log in or sign up. It opens on bathroom cabinets, Get a jump start on summer projects with our affordable ENHET system. In its text, the word catalog appears nowhere. It was in every capture we read from 2001 to 2020.

Three weeks after this capture, on June 22, 2022, IKEA launched Kreativ, a room designer for the app and the web. You scan a room, erase your own furniture from the picture and try IKEA’s in its place.^[7]

Then the summers follow each other. Join the Midsummer fun! in 2023, with a cookie notice across the bottom of the first screen. A row of category icons and an outdoor sale in 2024. A red panel in 2025, The IKEA summer sale, with an extra 10% off for loyalty members.

The May 2026 capture is red again: The IKEA Summer Sale, Up to 50% off select items. A black bar over the menu says US and English on the left. On the right are two buttons, Enter ZIP code and Select store.

In December 1998 IKEA’s homepage asked which of 29 countries and territories you were in, and told you to print a list of IVAR parts to take to the store. In May 2026 it asks for a ZIP code. The store menu that listed 15 American stores in 2003 is a button now, Select store. The header also shows a heart and a bag, labeled Favorites and Shopping bag in the page’s code.