NEW DELHI :
World’s top furniture retailer IKEA will open its store in Navi Mumbai, its second in India, on 18 December, the company said on Friday.
The retailer will, however, keep in mind social distancing measures and allow consumers to pick a slot online before planning a trip to its big box store—a struggle for retailers in the time of covid as consumers still remain wary of stepping out.
The retailer will initially cap the number of visitors in its store, it said in a statement to the press.
“To ensure good social distancing, IKEA will initially have a cap on the number of visitors to the store through prior registration on its website, by which customers will be allotted a day and time slot to visit the store. The company is putting together a whole process that will be released soon to public.”
The over 5 lakh square ft store, located on the Thane-Belapur road, will offer a range of 7,000 products.
Mumbai is a priority market for the retailer where two more small format—or city centre stores—will also come up in 2021.
“We are very excited, as Mumbai is one of our priority markets in India. We have been present online in Mumbai since early 2019 and soon the many people of Mumbai will be able to shop at our fantastic IKEA store. IKEA will bring alive inspiring home furnishing solutions with its large, unique range and home furnishing knowledge, showcasing many room-sets and homes, and multiple solutions for a more beautiful, smart, sustainable and affordable life at home – all this reflecting how people live in Mumbai,” said Peter Betzel, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA India said.
The retailer will create over 6,000 jobs in the state of Maharashtra by 2030.
Ikea opened its first store in India in the city of Hyderabad in 2018 to long queues and traffic jams—a scene that will be missing from its Navi Mumbai store launch.
The retailer has since opened up online sales channels in the cities of Hyderabad, Pune and Mumbai as part of its plans to build a more multi-channel approach in the market.
This will see IKEA open its signature large stores along with small format stores.
It will also offer goods online, critical to how shoppers are likely to buy goods in a post-covid world. IKEA is present online in Hyderabad and Pune with over 35 million online visitors so far and it has the ambition to reach 100 million Indian customers by 2022, it said in its statement.
IKEA continues to develop its omni-channel presence with e-commerce, physical stores and additional services as click and collect, click and deliver and remote planning, the company said.
Source: https://www.livemint.com/industry/retail/ikea-to-open-store-in-navi-mumbai-on-18-december-cap-visitors-11607064977096.html