IKEA Announces Biggest U.S. Expansion in 40 Years
The company is planning to open eight U.S. stores over the next three years.
Walmart and Wayfair are getting some competition in the retail home furnishings center space from a familiar, powerful brand: IKEA.
The Swedish company announced that it is investing $2.2 billion in its omnichannel growth strategy in the United States, opening eight new stores over the next three years – the largest investment in four decades of doing business in the U.S.
Seeing cuts in consumer spending lately, big-box retailers Walmart and online furniture retailer Wayfair have been cutting jobs and shutting stores, creating an opportunity for IKEA to pick up cheaper retail and warehouse space.
“There are locations available that have not been available before, there are opportunities for us to speed up investments in acquiring land and existing locations to bring IKEA closer to the many people,” Tolga Öncü, head of IKEA Retail at Ingka Group, said in published reports.
San Francisco and Arlington, Va., are scheduled to open this summer – the first two locations in the plan.
The strategy also includes 900 new “plan and order points” as pick-up locations as it seeks to modernize its stores. Here, customers can speak with a consultant on how to design their homes, as well as place orders.
“U.S. customers have a strong desire for more ways to shop and experience IKEA, and this growth plan will allow us to meet that need,” Javier Quiñones, IKEA’s CEO & Chief Sustainability Officer said in a prepared statement.
The expansion would increase IKEA’s U.S. portfolio by about a third, from 51 stores and two plan and order points.