After the layoffs, the 76-year-old IKEA announced the transformation. In addition to embracing e-commerce, IKEA stores are gradually divesting the nature of warehousing, moving from the suburbs to the city center, and becoming more and more “small and beautiful”. This time, Ikea, which has always regarded "parity" as the core value of the brand, has started to make small profits and quick turnovers in the noisy Taiwan, China night market, bringing together hundreds of products worth less than 20 yuan.

"Low price creates priceless"

The two stores in IKEA are located in the downtown area of Taiwan, China and are decorated with IKEA's consistent yellow-blue color. It has two floors and an area of about 300 square meters, similar to the storefront of MINISO. The price in the store is mostly NT$19, 29, and 49 (equivalent to RMB 5, RMB 7, and RMB 11). Just entering the door, there is a solid color mug priced at NT$19 (RMB 5 yuan). There are still many items at the same price, such as bowl sponge pony and hand sanitizer bottle. On the first floor, snacks, kitchen supplies and snacks were set up. On the second floor, pet supplies, office supplies, and home accessories were sold. A special children's play area was also opened.

After IKEA China reached its peak in 2016, sales have been slowing down. The data shows that IKEA China is expected to have sales of over RMB14.7 billion in FY18, up 9.3% year-on-year, while the year-on-year growth rates in 2016 and 2017 were 19.4% and 14%, respectively. In November 2018, IKEA parent company Ingka Group announced that in order to broaden the central shopping mall model and strengthen the construction of e-commerce platform, 7,500 people will be cut in the next two years, mainly in office positions such as public relations and administration, and investment in logistics and digitalization. In the next two years, 115,000 new jobs will be created.

However, the two stores are currently Pop-up stores and are only open until the end of April 2019. In the future, whether IKEA will promote this model on a large scale is still unknown. However, after the opening of these two stores, there are crowds of people, which shows that young consumers are more interested in this new attempt of IKEA.

（Source: JJgle.com）