Ikea to open small-format store at Jem, its first in South-east Asia

SWEDISH furniture giant Ikea, known for its massive blue-box stores, will on Thursday open a small-format store at Jem shopping mall in Jurong East. This is its first such outlet in South-east Asia.

The store, spanning about 70,000 square feet across three floors in the suburban mall, is significantly smaller than Ikea's two full-format stores in Alexandra and Tampines, which, including their warehouse spaces, are between 400,000 sq ft and 410,000 sq ft in size.

The Jem outlet will not have a playground or what Ikea calls a self-serve furniture area, where customers can pick up flat-packed items. But it will still have a restaurant and offer the full range of Ikea products, even though some product variations may not be displayed.

The new store will also have some new features: It is to be completely cashless, for one. It will also provide a click-and-collect ordering service for selected food items. This means customers can order their food before arriving at the restaurant, or for takeaways.

This outlet at Jem follows Ikea's opening of a standalone "planning studio" - an interior design and renovation studio - in Jurong Point shopping mall in January. These new store formats are part of Ikea's latest strategy to become more accessible to consumers across the world.

Jem, for instance, is directly connected to the Jurong East MRT interchange station and located at the junction of Jurong Gateway Road and Boon Lay Way.

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The mall receives 36 million visitors a year, Jaap Doornbos, Ikea's retail director for South-east Asia, told reporters at a preview of the new store. Ikea is targeting three million visitors for the Jem store.

The decision to open a smaller-format store was also partly due to Ikea being unable to find a suitable location in the west for a full-format store, he added. Ikea plans to have five standalone planning studios here, including the one at Jurong Point; it is eyeing such studios in northern and central Singapore.

But it is unlikely to open another store for now, Mr Doornbos said, noting that the Jem store comes 16 years since Ikea's last store. And given the size of the Singapore market, three stores are "probably enough", he added.

The new outlet at Jem is also expected to augment Ikea's online sales in Singapore. About 16 to 17 per cent of its revenue currently comes from e-commerce, up from 11 to 12 per cent pre-Covid.

That share is expected to go up to 18 to 19 per cent with the latest store, Mr Doornbos said.

READ MORE:

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