Swedish furniture manufacturing giant Ikea is completing its one year journey in India this week. The company started its venture by establishing a format store in Hyderabad exactly a year ago i.e. on 8th August 2018. The store in Hyderabad was the first of 25 stores Ikea planned to open across India.
The startup is already localizing its strategies and as part of the major plan to set up five-six smaller format stores in Mumbai, it is now scouting for locations in 'The City of Dreams'.
These smaller outlets would range from 50,000 – 150,000 square feet which is a digression from its flagship store stretch, which is up to 500,000 square feet. It is also expected to offer a more limited line-up of products and services. The company would expand its scouting expanse to other locations in India if this new experiment works well.
Ikea is looking forward to establishing 25 such sites by 2025. However, the next store is expected to begin its operation in Mumbai by 2020. The outlets are considered as experience centers to boost the customers within the city limits and also take charge of India’s online sales segment which is currently dominated by Flipkart and Amazon, reports the Economic Times.
“We need to step faster into the digital innovations where we can meet our customers digitally, on their smartphones as well as experience centers in city centers, closer to where many people live,” Peter Betzel, CEO, Ikea said in an interview the article reported.
The main concern behind the move is the intense competition from e-tailers such as Urban Ladder and Pepperfry which also offers online and offline retail facilities. The company is making an effort to step ahead of the soaring competition in the industry by offering better accessibility of stores.
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