IKEA to open its first 'city store' in India; announces location in the heart of Mumbai

In a key development, Swedish home furnishing retailer IKEA on Tuesday, August 24, announced that it is set to launch its first-ever city store in India which would be more accessible to urban customers. After opening flagship stores in Navi Mumbai in December 2020 along with another mega store that was inaugurated in Hyderabad, Telangana in 2018, the popular home furnishing brand will enter the Worli area in Mumbai.

"IKEA has the ambition of reaching 200 million people in India over the past few years with an omnichannel approach. This store will be the third physical store that IKEA opens in India," it said in a statement.

IKEA store in Mumbai city

"In line with IKEA's long-term commitment to Mahrashtra and India, the Worli store will be the first of its kind in India, following cities such as Paris, Moscow and Shanghai," said an IKEA statement. The Worli city store is expected to be followed by a second city store in Mumbai, said IKEA. The statement added that it believes strongly in the Indian market potential and there will be further store openings in the next year.

Taking to Twitter, IKEA India shared, "As a part of our omnichannel strategy we aim to meet more of the many people across India, and our next destination is #Worli, India's first city store. Goyal Malini captures the growth and the journey with our CEO, Peter Betzel."

The city store allows IKEA to be adapted to smaller spaces in an urban context i.e. between 50,000-100,000 sq ft, on the other hand, the traditional IKEA blue box is typically 400,000-500,000 sq ft. 

"The store in Worli will be 80,000 sq ft and will open towards the end of 2021, complete with all safe shopping measures in place," IKEA stated.

"Mumbai is one of our most important markets": IKEA India

Additionally, the urban IKEA store in Worli, Mumbai will boast a restaurant and services such as remote planning, personal shopper besides 'Click & Collect' under its omnichannel landscape. 'Click & Collect' is an option wherein a customer can head to shop at ikea.com, add items in one's cart, and choose Click & Collect at checkout to find a participating IKEA store nearby. The furnishing retailer receives the order and gets the items ready for the customer to pick the same at an IKEA store of one's choice.

IKEA India Market and Expansion Manager Per Hornell said, "Mumbai is one of our most important markets. Our goal is to always be close to our customers, become more accessible, convenient, and create a great IKEA experience wherever and whenever they want. With our first IKEA India city store in Worli, we will continue to meet many more people in Mumbai with our beautiful, affordable and sustainable home furnishings solutions for creating a better everyday life at home. As part of our omnichannel approach, we will continue to introduce new meeting points to meet customer expectations."

Earlier this year, IKEA launched its shopping app. As part of the omnichannel expansion, since 2019 IKEA India has had an eCommerce presence in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad. Of late, the operations have expanded to Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara and Bengaluru.