Ikea will close its R City Mall store in Mumbai

Swedish homeware and lifestyle retailer Ikea plans to close down its store in Mumbai’s R City Mall in the coming six months. The plan is part of Ikea’s goal of improving customer experience and streamlining operations in India. 

“There was an overall customer experience issue with the store,” an anonymous source close to the development told India Retailing. “The layout and design was not optimal.”
 
Ikea’s R City Mall store measures an expansive 72,000 square feet and first opened its doors to the public in July, 2022. The store was one of Ikea’s first stores which have a smaller size and are located in more central city locations. 

“This strategic decision is at the back of the learnings we have had in terms of customer experience and aligned to our vision of creating a leaner and faster retail business in the country,” said Ikea India in a company statement. “It further allows us to consolidate our Mumbai operations to Ikea Worli, Ikea Navi Mumbai, and online presence while exploring newer opportunities for future growth.”
 
Ikea plans to continue to bolster its omni-channel operations in Mumbai and will explore new retail formats for the metro. The business plans to continue to employ the over 100 workers from its R City Mall store and will relocate them to other Ikea stores in India. 
 
Ikea has numerous expansion plans for India in 2024. These include starting e-commerce operations in New Delhi and the business also plans on opening a store in Pune in the near future.