Furniture giant Ikea, popular for its affordable home accessories, is reportedly opening a small-format store at the Jem shopping mall situated in Jurong East, Singapore. This store would supposedly be Ikea’s first outlet of this type in Southeast Asia.
The store, spread over 70,000 square feet in three floors in the mall, is supposedly smaller than Ikea’s two full-format stores in Tampines and Alexandra that span over an area of 410,000 and 400,000 square feet respectively, including warehouse space.
The new store will have some novel features, such as being a completely cashless store. The store will also offer a click-and-collect ordering service for select food items, which will allow customers to place an order for food before they reach the restaurant, and even place takeaway orders, according to reports.
On the other hand, the Jem store will not have a playground or the so-called ‘self-serve furniture’ area, from where customers can get flat-packed products. However, the outlet will have the entire range of Ikea products and a restaurant, although certain product variations might not be put on display.
The new store comes after the Swedish furniture leader opened a standalone planning studio in Jurong Point shopping mall, which is an interior design and renovation studio, in January this year.
These new formats are part of the company’s latest strategy to reach more consumers across the world. For instance, Jem is located at the junction of Boon Lay Way and Jurong Gateway Road and is directly connected to the Jurong East MRT station.
Jaap Doornbos, the retail director for Southeast Asia for Ikea, claims that Ikea is targeting three million visitors at the new Jem outlet. The mall reportedly sees 36 million visitors annually.
Doornbos added that Ikea plans to open five standalone planning studios apart from the existing one at Jurong Point. The Jem store is supposedly expected to boost the company’s online sales in the Singapore market.
Source credits: https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/consumer/ikea-to-open-small-format-store-at-jem-its-first-in-south-east-asia
