Thailand Case

Thailand

IKEA opened it first store in Thailand on November 3, 2011. Ikano (Thailand), the operator of IKEA store in Thailand, had announced that the store had welcomed over 3 million visitors during its first year. They also reviewed that Bangkok had been on the list of cities IKEA wanted to expand to for quite a long time, but due to Thailand’s unusually high import duties, the company, with its limited expansion capability, chose to expand to a more profitable market first. Nevertheless, the IKEA store at Mega Bangna is well-received by the Thai patrons. The Swedish firm claims that the traffic volume is between 10,000 to 15,000 on weekday and rises to 15,000 to 20,000 on the weekend. Given the huge success of its first store, Ikano plans to open 2 more stores in Thailand within 10 years.

Location Decision: Why Thailand?

Thailand is considered as one of the mature market for the home furnishing industry. The Thai consumers are well aware of the different alternative solutions for home furnishing and are developing a more and more sophisticated and unique consumer’s culture. With the boom of Condominiums in recent years, demand for furnitures and home decorations sore to new height. With the impending AEC, it’s expected that more expatriates will be flowing in to Bangkok. This is one of the major opportunity for a world-renowned company like IKEA.

To sum up, the Thai market is big enough and will continue to grow in the future. With its worldwide logistic networks and suppliers, IKEA is in the position to bring its concept of affordable stylish home furnishing to the Thai market.

Why Mega Bangna?

First of all, it should be noted that the IKEA store at Mega Bangna weighs in at 40,000 sqm, which is almost one-fifth of the Mega Bangna project total size. It is highly unlikely that the