Ikea could soon be embarking on a search for high street property throughout the UK if a small format store experiment proves successful.
The Swedish furniture chain is scheduled to open its first “order and collection” point in Norwich this autumn. It will allow consumers to pick up larger furniture items they ordered previously online, as well as testing smaller products with in-store experts and dining on the iconic Swedish meatballs in an Ikea branded café.
According to head of Ikea UK Gillian Drakeford, the move was prompted by regular customers reporting that Ikea’s existing stores were “often far too away” for them to visit as frequently as they would desire.
Indeed, residents of Norwich currently have to travel for more than two hours to reach their closest store, meaning that the retailer anticipates a high level of interest when the outlet opens later this year.
Ms Drakeford says; “Our customers are also telling us that with 18 stores in the UK, we are often too far away.
“Order and collection points give us the opportunity to trial new ways of being more accessible to our customers.
“We will start by testing this new format in Norwich – we already have an established online presence in this market but currently our customers in Norfolk have to travel more than two hours to our Lakeside or Milton Keynes stores to see the product range and get planning and design advice.”
This is not the first time Ikea has trialled the smaller store format in Europe, as the furniture giant already operates similar models in Pamplona, Spain; Tromsø, Norway; and Jyväskylä, Finland.
Should the Norwich outlet prove to be a success, Ikea intends to open a further two small UK stores within the next year, one of which is rumoured to be located on the high street rather than on a retail park.
If this is followed by further openings it will provide a boost to the fortunes of town centres, where issues such as high business rates and a lack of free parking for consumers have led the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to warn that around 80,000 shops could close by 2017.
