Furniture retailer IKEA announced Wednesday that it will close seven stores in China starting February 2.
Among the stores to be closed are one in suburban Shanghai, one in Guangzhou, as well as several in other Chinese second-tier cities, including Nantong, Xuzhou and Harbin, according to a statement posted on IKEA’s official WeChat account.
Retailers are generally struggling to grow sales in China, where consumer sentiment is weak after a prolonged housing market crisis, concerns about job security and stagnant wages.
There are currently around 40 IKEA stores in China, and the statement said that five new stores of various sizes have opened recently.
China, the world’s second largest economy, accounts for about 3.5 percent of IKEA’s global sales. With an increasing share of sales in the country coming from online platforms, IKEA opened a new online store on JD.com in August last year to further boost online sales growth.
– We are moving from expansion of sales space to precise positioning, exploring Beijing and Shenzhen as key markets, and plan to open more than ten small stores in the next two years – IKEA said in a statement, adding that new stores in Dongguan and Beijing are expected to open in the first half of 2026.
(Vijesti.ba)
