Ikea, from blue-box to tailored local stores: the Paris example

It took about 20 years for Ikea to open stores in city centres. The innovative idea to go from suburban big blue-box to inner-city stores dates back from the end of the nineties and was set to develop from 2002, but the first city-centre store only opened in 2014 in Hamburg. In 2019, the first Parisian store was launched and now it seems Ikea is in full speed in the City of Lights with two new units opening in less than a month: one on the buzzy ‘high-street’ Rue de Rivoli (facing the newly reopened La Samaritaine department store), and one in the more residential 12th district, making it the 38th store in France. 

The 3 Parisian stores are quite different from one another, Ikea developing different and custom formats in city centres, and constantly adapting them to local customer needs. What is the strategy behind recent openings? How are stores organised? How are they combining and most important, do they work? 

IADS provides its members with a weekly in-depth analysis on retail-oriented topics. This is an example of the themes the Association regularly addresses, and the topic of an article from the IADS members-only newsletter date 21 July 2021.