London’s Ikea mini-store moving to city’s south end next month

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is relocating its Masonville Place boutique store to a “new and improved” site in south London next month.

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Though Ikea focused a plan for a full-scale London store four years ago, the company opened a small location in Masonville Place in 2021.

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Ikea originally offered design and planning services in what it called its “London Design studio” at the north London mall. The location became what the company calls a “plan and order” outlet where shoppers can talk to Ikea experts and order items for the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living room.

Ikea announced in October 2023 it was planning a new plan and order outlet at 3120 Wonderland Rd. S. The company said on Tuesday that outlet is opening March 6.

The Masonville Place location was designed “as a short-term concept to support customers with personalized design and planning services,” Ikea spokesperson Meghan Hogan said.

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“Our ambition was to test and evaluate the concept, and determine whether to scale up or move on,” she said. “We’ve seen a positive response from customers for the service provided at the current London location and are excited to be scaling up with the opening of a new, bigger plan and order point location.”

The Masonville Place location will close on Sunday.

Inna Romagnoli, Ikea Canada’s country business development and transformation manager, said a recent survey showed that up to 50 per cent of Canadians “are looking to either move or renovate their homes in the next two years.

“We want to support them by providing affordable and inspiring home furnishing solutions that meet the evolving needs of their homes,” Romagnoli said. “We’re excited to bring an elevated planning experience to our London. . . neighbors and help them take the guess work out of planning the space of their dreams.”

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At the new location, both walk-in and appointment-based planning services will be offered.

Once an order is placed, customers can have it delivered directly to their homes or to a local Ikea pick-up point.

In 2017, Ikea announced it planned to open a full store in London, south of Highway 401 and Wellington Road, near Costco. The company confirmed it had a purchase agreement for that site.

Ikea postponed plans for the store in 2018, as the move to online sales with Amazon and Wayfair had changed the retail landscape.

The company said in 2020 that it was no longer pursuing the London location.

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