IKEA Opens New ‘Plan, Order & Pick-Up’ Stores

Both in the United States and United Kingdom, IKEA has announced plans to open more of its ‘plan and order points’, following a store expansion strategy focused on providing smaller, more easily accessible store locations to its customers.

Expanding Reach And Meeting New Shopper Missions

First launched in early 2023, this new store format is dedicated to kitchen, bedroom, and living room planning and allows more access to free home planning, while also enabling customers to pick-up online purchases and place orders. Last week, the swedish company announced it will open four more ‘Plan & order’ locations in the U.S. with stores in Austin, Texas, the Atlanta Metropolitan area and two more in Los Angeles. Plans for further expansion are already underway, with other cities including Annapolis and Gaithersburg, Maryland, Katy, Texas and more to follow.

“As we look back at the past year, I’m proud of the progress we’ve made in reducing our environmental impact and keeping affordability and accessibility at the forefront for all our customers. Looking ahead, we are excited about our plans for new locations and services bringing the joy of IKEA to more hearts and homes,” said Javier Quiñones, CEO & chief sustainability officer at IKEA U.S. in a press release.

Affordability and accessibility have always been the pillars of IKEA, which has remained a winning strategy in 2023. The U.S. branch reported a +6.6% growth compared to the previous year, achieving over $6.3 billion in total sales. With e-commerce up 3% and click and collect services up 16%, the acceleration of pick-up stores for shoppers is a coherent move, especially as a way to capture different types of shopper missions versus the large warehouse stores people visit to furnish their entire home.

Opening more central, small-sized stores is also a key focus for IKEA in the U.K. with three new ‘Plan and order’ locations opened in the northwest in 2023, as well as a new city store on Oxford Street expected to open this year. Overall, IKEA stores in this market also saw an uplift of shopper visits, with 1 million more customers pushing the doors of an IKEA location. Improving physical retail availability through smaller formats and more urban locations is therefore a clear objective for 2024 as more stores are expected to open throughout the year.

IKEA Also Expands Services To Meet All Types of Customer Needs

In addition to expanding its reach and accessibility, IKEA has been deploying more services to provide convenience and personalization and sustainable shopping options to shoppers. “We launched As-is online, a service for customers to lower their environmental impact by buying gently used items online. We also expanded Buy Back & Resell—where IKEA buys back and gives gently used IKEA furniture a second life—throughout the U.S. and installed additional electric vehicle chargers,” said Javier Quiñones. The brand is also targeting companies to fulfill office furnishing needs: “we accelerated our business transformation to meet the needs of all our customers. We launched the IKEA Business Network—a free loyalty program for businesses—and offered a convenient online IKEA Interior Design Service for more affordable interior design.”

Offering more services to shoppers, from click-and-collect to design services and resale while also opening smaller stores indicates IKEA’s clear commitment to diversify beyond the big-box warehouse format to cater to new types of shopper missions and deliver more accessibility, convenience and custom services than ever before. This follows the strategy of many grocery retailers that have slowly moved away from the hypermarket channel to dive into convenience and expand into urban city centers, offering services like Amazon
AMZN
lockers and more. With a record year of sales in 2023, IKEA is definitely well positioned to keep building momentum and deliver on its mission to provide accessible, affordable products and services that meet a varied range of shopper needs.