After marking its presence in Hyderabad and Navi Mumbai, Swedish furnishing giant IKEA is planning to enter the NCR market now. Notably, Ingka Centre for IKEA Retail had announced the launch of its maiden shopping complex in India at Gurugram earlier in November. Moving forward with its mission to target the Indian market, the Sweden-based furnishing brand is planning on expanding its niche in the country by setting up stores in Delhi and Noida now.
Construction of IKEA Mall in Gurugram to being in 2022
Expected to be finished in the next 3 to 4 years, the mixed use retail shopping destination at Gurugram will be based on a large format IKEA store. While the Ingka Group plans to start the construction of this mall in early 2022, timeline for the Delhi and Noida project has not been announced yet. According to Peter Betzel, the CEO of IKEA India, land in Gurugram and Noida has been procured already whereas the search for a suitable location in Delhi is still underway.
While emphasising on the importance of the Indian market globally, Peter Betzel said, “India remains one of the important growth markets for the Ingka group. We have the ambition to meet more than 200 million people by 2025.” While talking about the upcoming expansion plans in India, the CEO said, “We are looking forward to open our first city store in Worli, Mumbai within this year.”
Plans to expand in India with omnichannel approach
Notably, the first physical store of IKEA was launched in 2020 at Navi Mumbai, however, with the launch of the ‘IKEA app’ recently, the home furnishing brand has expanded its presence via omnichannel. With the help of the omnichannel approach, the company plans to increase its reach by establishing big and small physical stores while continuing its online presence. As of now, IKEA has marked online presence in Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Surat and Baroda through this application.
Even with the outbreak of the pandemic, the company managed to move forward with its omnichannel expansion. According to the CEO, strict guidelines and COVID-mandated restrictions did not have any impact on the ongoing projects of the company. In line with the new normal, the furnishing brand has been working on strengthening its online presence in new markets as well as introducing various facilities like ‘Click & Collect’, home furnishing consultancy, remote planning and others.
IKEA to source 50% of products sold in India, locally!
Within the first three years of store operations, IKEA has managed to source 23% of the total items sold in India locally. However, in order to create more affordable products, the company plans on increasing this to upto 50% in the near future. This will not only help in reducing cost but also reduce carbon footprint and give a boost to the manufacturing sector in the country. Talking about the impact of this decision the CEO Betzel said, “This will enable lower prices for our customers but also help create more jobs, enhance skills, keeping costs low while reducing the environmental impact.”.
With inputs from IANS
