As the retail landscape adjusts to more online shoppers, traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are reacting to customers’ changing lifestyles – including how they arrive at their stores.
Swedish household giant IKEA is now building megastores in urban areas without parking spaces – starting with a location in Vienna, Austria – as more consumers are adopting car-free lifestyles, according to reports.
The strategy complements the fact that given the large size of many of the store’s items, more shoppers are opting to have their purchases delivered.
An IKEA spokesperson commented on how the store will become a centralized hub in the urban community:
“IKEA at Westbahnhof should become the meeting point for the whole district. In the furniture store itself, which extends over several floors, interior design ideas and the entire IKEA range are shown in an innovative way. There is room for inspiration and chilling. What will not exist is a traditional furniture store, because all larger items will be delivered directly to your home from the new logistics center in Strebersdorf.”
The European architects IKEA hired to design the Vienna store, querkraft architekten, elaborated on the style and amenities the building offers to shoppers and visitors:
“We chose the location because it is perfectly connected to public transport. Most residents of Vienna's inner-city districts don't have a car. The central location is perfect for them. At the same time, the usage behavior of services also changes: People like to go shopping, want to try, attack and test things, plan together with our specialists – but they don't want to drag them home themselves, but prefer to have them delivered. IKEA at Westbahnhof is responding precisely to this trend.”
