IKEA Canada is opening a new “Pick-Up and Order Point” in St. Catharines, Ont., set to open next spring. The location, to be housed in a former Future Shop, will allow customers who have shopped online or at an IKEA store to pick up their products closer to home.
IKEA is testing its Pick-Up and Order points in five markets globally where there are currently no IKEA stores. Two additional Canadian pick-up points will open in London, Ont. and Quebec City before the end of this year.
The idea is to make IKEA, which currently has only 12 stores in Canada, more accessible to customers.
“The biggest constraints for Canadians is around accessibility and how to reach our stores in a convenient way,” said Stefan Sjöstrand, president of IKEA Canada, in an interview with Marketing. “We know that we have many customers driving from London to our store in Burlington and that’s a drive of around one and a half hours. It’s the same in St. Catharines and it’s about an hour’s drive to Burlington.”
In addition, more customers are buying online and in Canada, the prices for delivery are too high because of the distances, said Sjöstrand. For example, an IKEA kitchen ordered from Burlington would cost a Londoner around $450 in delivery charges. With the new pick-up location, the customer will be able to pick up the kitchen for $20 or have it delivered to their home for $99.
While the pick-up and order points are a test, Sjöstrand said the concept would be implemented across the globe. “We evaluate what is working, what is not working, and then we will adjust.”
For example, while the London and Quebec City locations will stock 99 items for immediate purchase, the St. Catharines location will not. “We have seen in Pamplona, Spain that these takeaway articles only stand for 3% of the sales, so they are not as important as we thought in the beginning,” Sjöstrand. “We want to test this in Canada as well.”
The pick-up and order points in Canada are around 25,000 to 30,000 sq. ft., while a regular IKEA location is roughly 400,000 sq. ft. The pick-up points feature furniture and accessory displays, as well as stations where IKEA employees can help customers with their planning process. Customers can also sit at computer stations to browse items and make online purchases.
Aside from making IKEA more accessible, Sjöstrand said the pick-up points are part of IKEA’s transformation into a truly multi-channel retailer. “The multi-channel for the future is so much more than ordering a product. For us, it’s to increase our service offering, how we will be even stronger on social media… and have a strong connection with the customer,” he said.
