Ikea Temporary opens in Madrid

This Monday, Ikea announced the opening of “Ikea Temporary” in the centre of Madrid. The store concept aims to test a new shopping experience for its customers where they can have fun, learn and interact with the brand.

The Swedish brand has made an investment of 1.5 billion euros in the creation of the new pop-up store to be launched before summer on Serrano street, in the city of Madrid. The ephemeral shop will be focused on the ‘bedroom’ category for the first six months, showing all kinds of products intended for the functions of this space. Then, it will change its theme and will be renewed to show some other home space category, which has not yet been decided.

The company is looking for different store formats to get closer to its customers, starting right in the centre of the city. Last year, for its 20-year anniversary in Spain, Ikea opened two pop-up stores for 10 days in downtown Madrid and Barcelona as part of its #20YearsTogether. With the positive experience of last year, this year they decided to launch the new “Ikea Temporary” store concept to create a new shopping experience for customers and to interact with their audience in a different way.

Through new technologies and carefully designed interior decoration, they aim to create a strong emotional connection with the consumer. Ikea’s Deputy General Manager for Iberica, Antonella Pucarelli, mentioned to ABC Economía that «”Ikea Temporary” is a very special project, that will allow us to test new ingredients of what is going to be a new formula of relationship with our clients. With this project, we want to answer to your requests (the client’s) in an innovative way, and improve your every day by being closer and more accessible».

Some of the innovative ‘ingredients’ that are going to be tested in this store include the product customization service, which allows customers to customise their purchase for free: from the head of their bed to the embroidery of their sheets. Clients will also have at their disposal interior designers who will advise them on the decoration of any space in their store or house. This experience will be available both face-to-face, by taking an appointment, or virtually, in a corner of the store that is intended for interior design consults.

Another innovation in terms of technology will be the ‘smart’ closet, which will guide customers on how to organise the interior of their closets according to their lifestyle. However, the main protagonist of the store will undoubtedly be the showcase stand, which will be six meters height and showcase pieces made by renowned people from the world of art, fashion, design, or illustration, and will be renewed from time to time. Artists will have the challenge of interpreting the Ikea brand and the bedroom world and translate it into unique pieces.

 

Multichannel Strategy

Ikea is reinforcing its multichannel strategy and Spain is one of the main axes where the strategy of the multinational is centred. Last year it launched the online shopping service 1.0 in all the stores of the company and up to date it already represents about 3% of sales for the business. They already have 16 stores in Spain but their goal is to continue betting on new store formats and methods of relating to their customers through the integration of new technologies to surprise and captivate them.