IKEA Plans Smaller Stores for Canada

IKEA (Leiden, Netherlands) has announced it will open up to 10 smaller format stores across Canada within the next year. At about 37,000 square feet — about a tenth the footprint of a full-size IKEA store — the stores will function primarily as pickup sites for e-commerce customers.

Although some of the company’s future pickup stores will likely have small retail areas, according to Business Vancouver, the first batch of units will primarily serve as storage with counters where Ikea workers will greet customers and retrieve their online orders.

The company hasn’t released exact locations for the pickup stores, but IKEA Canada president Stefan Sjöstrand says they will be located on the West Coast and all over the country.

A December 9 Forrester study, commissioned by Purolator, revealed that 73 percent of Canadians want to have the option to pick up online purchases in-store, reports Business Vancouver.