IKEA chooses Chile for its landing in South America

The Swedish firm specializing in decoration and design IKEA arrives in South America and has chosen Chile for its debut in the region.

In a landing much awaited by Chilean consumers -despite the economic situation, marked by inflation of 12.5% annually-, the store will open on August 10 in a space of more than 15,300 meters that will incorporate a furniture exhibition, supervised play area for children, a restaurant and a cafe with typical Swedish food and a market with Nordic food.

It will be located in the Open Kennedy shopping center -in the municipality of Las Condes, next to the classic Parque Arauco, in the eastern part of the capital – where it is already possible to see the traditional IKEA logo with a blue background and yellow letters.

Details of the store have been revealed in dribs and drabs to keep potential customers excited, but IKEA is again aiming for “an accessible price for most people”.

“When you visit IKEA stores, we want you to feel at home, and to that end, we will offer a complete experience, inviting you to taste, touch and feel our products. In addition, you will be able to explore and be inspired by our home décor ideas,” explains Marita Marante, Operations and Customer Experience Manager at IKEA Chile, Colombia, and Peru, the other two countries in the region where the company will soon land.

The first IKEA store in Chile will follow the same logic as all the company’s stores around the world, according to the company, which will open its second store in Santiago de Chile in the second half of the year, but at the other end of the city: in the MallPlaza Oeste shopping center, in the Cerrillos district, which will be 25,000 square meters in size.

The Las Condes store will have a sales area of 8,700 square meters. The furniture showroom will display different styles and decorations designed for different spaces in the home, recreating actual rooms. There will be a children’s area – dedicated to toys, stuffed animals, and children’s decor – and a space focused on home décor products.

As it happens every time IKEA arrives in a country, the company does a previous study to know the local reality and ways of living. In the case of Chile, one of the issues they found was the organization in different areas of the home.

On the other hand, they found a tendency to live in smaller spaces. As the IKEA team made many visits to families with children, they all agreed that the main frustration was the organization of toys. “These and other habits were studied to select those that best suit the lives of our customers in Chile,” the company said in a statement.

Founded in Sweden in 1943, it has more than 400 stores in 50 markets around the world. “We have been preparing all the details for the opening of our first store in the region for some time, and we are very excited,” says Francisco Errázuriz, Regional Retail Manager for IKEA Chile, Colombia, and Peru.

IKEA has defined its landing in Chile as “a significant milestone for the company”. The firm has announced, in turn, that the first IKEA store in Colombia will open in Bogota in 2023 and that it will launch next year a collection that will highlight the unique culture and traditions of each country.

To do so, it teamed up with nine Latin artists and designers, including four Chileans: designers Trini Guzmán and Abel Cárcamo, architect Felipe Assadi, and ceramist Catalina Zahri.

The first shipments of products to supply the IKEA store began arriving in Chile in October 2021. They come mainly from Barcelona, Spain, where products from more than 20 European countries are consolidated. And on average, each shipment takes 12 weeks to arrive in Chilean ports.

The Swedish company will use Falabella Group’s logistics capabilities in Chile, such as 50 distribution and transfer centers. At the same time, it will have more than 260 points for electronic purchases.

With information from El País