Ikea has decided to close one of its stores, just two years after its initial opening. The Swedish furniture giant will be shutting down its Plan and Order point located at the Stockport Merseyway Shopping Centre on June 16.
Ikea’s Plan and Order points are smaller retail locations that specialize in kitchen, bedroom, and living room planning services, offering customers design consultations.
While customers cannot take items home from a Plan and Order point directly, they can place orders for home delivery. The nearest full-size Ikea store is situated in Ashton-under-Lyne in Tameside.
Salma Azad, Ikea’s area manager, expressed that after careful assessment, the decision was made to close the Ikea Plan and Order Point at the Merseyway Shopping Centre. Valuable insights gathered over the past two years will be utilized for future store openings to better serve customers.
The closure comes as Ikea recently unveiled its new store on Oxford Street in London, occupying three floors of a seven-story building with a retail space of 5,800 square meters. This marks the second smaller format Ikea store, following the Hammersmith branch launched in 2023, offering around 6,000 product lines with 3,500 available for immediate purchase.
Each product at the Oxford Street store is labeled with either a yellow or red tag to indicate whether it can be bought and taken home or needs to be ordered for delivery or click and collect. CEO and Chief Sustainability Officer of IKEA UK, Peter Jelkeby, mentioned that the London store includes new features tailored for the city center location.
Tolga Öncü, Ingka Retail Manager (COO) at IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), highlighted the significance of adding Oxford Street to Ikea’s map, emphasizing the company’s commitment to expanding its retail presence in city centers worldwide.