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When you visit Ikea.com, you are taken to a landing page that provides multiple regions and languages to choose from. Maybe this works for IKEA, but is this an unnecessary obstacle for first time users to smaller sites?
Is it better to have a base homepage with a language or region selector in the nav or is there another way that's even better than the two options I've listed? Better as in best converting.
This depends on how much traffic your expecting to pull from multiple regions.
If you know that you'll be getting traffic from all over the world and they will all be contributing significantly towards your goals (revenue or form sign ups etc) then following the example you have provided is a good tried and tested way to instantly engage and increase conversion rates with your audience.
But to answer you directly - yes this is unnecessary for smaller sites if by smaller you mean lower traffic and lesser dev resources to actually create a different landing page per region you expect your visitors to come from.
Of course, with all of these 'it depends' answers you get in the realm of UX, the only real way to answer this question for your website and your users is to TEST each option. One good test is worth a thousand expert opinions. Just because something works for IKEA, doesn't guarantee it will work for any other company.
I think the way they've done it is pretty good. I wouldn't call this an "obstacle" exactly -- primary call to action on the homepage is "TAKE ME TO IKEA CANADA" button, so that's easy enough. I don't think a "base homepage with a language or region selector in the nav" would actually make a lot of sense for IKEA, considering consumers in the various countries are likely looking for entirely different types of furniture (I imagine), so it would be hard to generalize a "default IKEA homepage". If your company's user wants/needs are generalizable enough, then the base homepage idea makes sense. Otherwise, the current IKEA design is a fine solution.
