Ikea to open smaller stores for next phase of growth in India

Global homeware and lifestyle retailer Ikea plans to open smaller scale stores for its next phase of brick-and-mortar expansion in India. The business is gearing up for its launch in the Delhi National Capital Region and also aims to boost its online presence in the country.

“We have done phase one, where we invested in the three first markets in four stores,” Ikea’s India CEO Susanne Pulverer told the Press Trust of India. “We have taken the learnings. We have seen and learned even more from the Indian consumers, and now we take that to the next phase of the investment and expanding in India.”
 
Ikea’s upcoming stores will mainly be sized between 30,000 to 70,000 square feet, India Retailing reported. The business aims to launch e-commerce sales in New Delhi in the first quarter of 2025 then open its first brick-and-mortar store in the metro at its first ‘Lykli’ centre, scheduled to launch in Gurugram in 2026.
 
“At the same time, being a low-cost company and really cost-conscious, we try to find ways to work around and compensate,” said Pulverer about high land prices and interest rates in India. “We look at, together with our colleagues in sourcing, how to have more of local source products that will help gross margins.”