Finally, An Ikea Store You Can’t Get Lost In

May 13, 2021 by Dave Haynes

If you stay away from Ikea because you’re sick of getting lost in the labyrinth design, you’ll like this new Ikea in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong.

The store is a pop-up that is testing an ultra-small format until the end of October.

You can’t buy flat-pack furniture or shelving units, but you can pick up everyday living items like kitchen items, small decor pieces and Swedish foods. As you can see in the photo, digital displays are important to the small design.

Hong Kong is VERY population-dense and anything approaching a normal, sprawling Ikea would be hard to pull off in terms of available space and cost. I have seen big retailers in the UK doing small “express” versions of their stores – like Tesco and Marks and Spencer – that compete with pure-play convenience store chains. Same thing in the Netherlands and, I assume, in many big cities around the globe.

This is a bit different than grocery and c-store retailing, but you can imagine as the world has grown more accustomed to e-commerce, curbside pickup and home delivery, many stores with big footprints will have smaller versions that fit more readily into urban landscapes.

With those, digital has a big role in guiding the customer experience, but also opening up options with touch-based directories and endless aisle buying options.