IKEA Singapore: Start small this Raya

Sustainability is the theme this Ramadhan at IKEA Singapore. The company's sustainable approach covers cotton - no optical brighteners, and from sources using less water, chemical fertilisers and pesticides - as well as energy-efficient LED bulbs, rechargeable batteries, and easily-renewed bamboo materials.

Source: IKEA website. HEMBJUDEN is designed for Ramadhan.

The annual Ramadhan collection, HEMBJUDEN, is inspired by Islamic geometric art and features cushion covers, lanterns, serving plates, curtains, rugs and more.

Source: IKEA website. Raya (Eid) goodies include from left: dendeng, meat jerky; cookies, and cakes.

Up to 2 May, IKEA will hold a Raya bazaar at the Swedish food market: halal cookies, dendeng and cakes. The cookies are available in the following flavours:

- Cranberry oatmeal 200 g, S$7.90

- Pecan nut chocolate chip 220 g, S$7.90

- Cheese bangkit 240 g, S$7.90

- Cranberries pineapple ball 340 g, S$8.50

Two flavours of dendeng are on sale, beef or spicy chicken, at S$24.90 for 450 g, while there are three options for the cakes:

- Original layer cake 250 g, S$8

- Ondeh ondeh 500 g, S$21.90

- Hazelnut chocolate 500 g, S$20.90

Various items are available online for via Foodpanda and Grab.

11street gears up for Eid

Malaysian e-commerce portal 11street has clothes, gifts and decor galore for Raya (Eid). A selection is below:

Source: 11street. In conjunction with the Raya festive season, new member KWC Fashion Mall is promoting Raya themed apparels from now until the end of August. New items are added every day.

Source: 11street website. This sale, which will be on till 31 July, offers baju at up to 40% off. 

Source: 11street website. A gift hamper with home-made cookies (halal), Beryl chocolates and flowers, for RM149.50 including shipping.

Source: 11street website. Festival lighting lanterns for RM48.99 excluding shipping.

Source: 11street website. Fujifilm gift hamper with Eid packaging for RM388, free shipping for West Malaysia.

IKEA Singapore, Malaysia go with 'Bling glamour for Raya' campaign

Source: IKEA Malaysia website.

Source: IKEA Singapore website.

In keeping with a tradition of going tongue-in-cheek, the IKEA Eid promotion is about bling* in Malaysia and Singapore, with advertisements inspired by hip hop fashion. The pun This Raya, bling glamour home is used to encourage shoppers to refresh their homes, an Eid tradition in Southeast Asia.

Source: IKEA Malaysia page. The Raya collections for both Singapore and Malaysia are identical and seems to be mostly blacks and whites, although the advertisement theme was 'bling'.

Source: IKEA Singapore website. IKEA Singapore lists weekly specials from the Raya collection on its website.

The Doftrik collection, based on "Arabic patterns with an IKEA twist", is partially available in Malaysia.

The sales will continue till 19 July.

*The advertisements received negative comments in Singapore as not reflecting the spirit of Ramadhan. Some have also questioned why footwear is allowed in the house, and why the male models are wearing gold, for instance. There were no comments of this nature on the IKEA Malaysia Facebook page.

IKEA Singapore responded on its Facebook page on 20 July with the messages: "IKEA Singapore Hej guys, thanks for reaching out to us. At IKEA, we always aim to inspire people with home decor ideas through campaigns that bring a smile and are inimitably IKEA. Our intention is to give people ideas to have their homes ready with our Raya range. We assure you that it is not our aim to offend and we value all feedback provided.", and "IKEA Singapore Hej everyone, we have taken the time to read through your feedback and you might have noticed we’ve taken down our cover photo. As we mentioned our intention wasn’t to offend anyone and we are sorry if we did. We hope we can continue to give you home decor ideas and will be back with a new inspiration soon."