Ikea has decided to close one of its stores, located at the Stockport Merseyway Shopping Centre, just two years after its grand opening. The store in question is an Ikea Plan and Order point, which specializes in assisting customers with kitchen, bedroom, and living room planning through design advice.
Although customers cannot purchase items directly from the Plan and Order point, they can place orders for home delivery. The nearest full-scale Ikea store is situated in Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside.
Salma Azad, Ikea’s area manager, expressed regret over the closure, citing the valuable insights gained over the past two years on customer preferences. She assured customers that the Manchester store will continue to provide the familiar Ikea experience for home planning needs.
In a recent move, Ikea unveiled its new store on Oxford Street in London, taking over the former TopShop site. The store spans three floors and offers around 6,000 product lines, but only 3,500 products are available for immediate purchase. Each item is tagged with either yellow or red labels to indicate whether it can be bought in-store or requires ordering for delivery or click and collect.
Peter Jelkeby, CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer at IKEA UK, highlighted the store’s unique features tailored to the city center setting, designed in collaboration with Londoners. Tolga Öncü, Ingka Retail Manager at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), emphasized the significance of the Oxford Street store in expanding Ikea’s retail presence to urban areas globally, aiming to make well-designed and affordable products more accessible to customers.
