What does the opening of IKEA in small stores signify?

By George Lampiris

Another city store after the one in Piraeus was added to its network by the Fourlis group with the IKEA brand. The store has an area of ​​1,900 sq.m. and available 1,300 products out of the total 9,000 that the IKEA catalog has in Greece.

For the specific point of sale located in The Mall Athens, the amount of the investment amounted to 3 million euros. In the next steps of the group for IKEA are two medium type stores, ie from 8,000-12,000 sq.m. which will be created in Heraklion and Patras by 2023.

Also in the plan of the group is the creation of a large store “Big Box” which will be created in the area of ​​Elliniko, where in collaboration with Lamda Development is in the plan the creation of a Retail Park which will be developed by the company Trade Estates which manages the group portfolio.

Regarding the impact of the pandemic on retail trade, the president of the Fourlis group, Vassilis Fourlis, said that he accelerated the developments in the retail trade and led to the development of the multi-channel shopping model that combines physical stores and e-commerce. In this direction, in fact, the store in The Mall Athens will give consumers the opportunity to buy the existing products from the specific store, while for the other IKEA products they will be able to order them or pick them up from the big stores in airport and Kifissos or be sent to the address they want. Characteristic was the reference of Mr. Fourlis to the fact that the IKEA ossop while before the pandemic recorded sales corresponding to 10% of the group’s turnover, now the sales have risen to 20% of the total turnover. This year, e-commerce sales amount to about 80 million euros out of the total 400 million euros which is the total turnover of the group.

Increases are coming from 2022 – Shortages in 13% of IKEA products

Regarding the impact that disruptions have had on the supply chain in recent times, Mr. Fourlis noted that at present there are shortages corresponding to 13% of total IKEA products and added that from 2022 the first increases in products will occur. of IKEA as currently processes are underway to update the price list.