Bengalurueans to get Ikea soon

Ground work begins on Oct 11; expect main store near Nagasandra Metro station and several touch stores

After a long delay, the Ikea Bengaluru store is inching towards reality. The ground work for the Ikea store is scheduled for October 11. The store is to come up behind the Nagasandra Metro station (off Tumkur Road).

Announcing this, Ikea deputy country head Patrik Antoni said, “After launching our Hyderabad store, we are now focussing on Mumbai launch, which will be followed by Bengaluru launch. The ground work is set to begin from October 11 and we are hoping to complete the work and launch the store by either the end of 2019 or early 2020.

Giving further details, he said the Bengaluru store was also being constructed to have one of the largest Ikea restaurants with a seating capacity of 1,000 people. They were also planning to go big with the digital sales which will be followed up with the Ikea touch stores. These touch stores are to come up in different parts of the city and will act as experiential stores for the customers.

The Ikea Hyderabad has been a learning experience and the lessons will be applied to Bengaluru. For example, Ikea officials say that their first learning experience was to control the mad rush witnessed on day one at the Hyderabad store. A brain storming later revealed that many of the customers who entered had no clue as to where and how they need to go ahead for shopping. So, in Bengaluru (though the launch is still way ahead), they want to guide the customers beforehand so that the Hyderabad experience is not repeated.

Ikea officials said that they had visited many homes before starting the shop, which helped them to understand the local market. This was the reason why kadai and tawa were introduced for the first time in their business in Hyderabad. Another interesting thing is that many of the customers in foreign countries preferred dark hued furniture. However, in India, there is a great demand for light and white stuff. With the Bengaluru store coming up, they have started to visit many homes where they have realised that they need to now go for Idli cookware which may go on sales in Bengaluru. Among the other learnings that are to be adapted in Bengaluru market, Ikea has realised that many homes in Bengaluru had pooja rooms and hence they were now working on accessories for it. Many people during the survey have said that they preferred to sit on the ground and hence they were considering chairs with lower height.