DOHA: Swedish home furnishing ginat IKEA’s newly-opened store in Qatar witnessed over 500,000 visitors in just three months, a press statement said yesterday.
The store opened on March 11 to customers in the presence of a host of VIP guests including Omar Al Futtaim, Vice-Chairman, Al Futtaim Group, His Excellency, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani, The Chairman, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Qatar, Max Bjuhr, the Swedish Ambassador to the UAE, Qatar & Bahrain, a delegation of Al Futtaim group executives, guests and media.
The store offers over 7,500 products and measures an impressive 32,000 square metres and is designed in the form of IKEA’s trademark inspirational ‘room settings’, most of which were specially adapted to appeal to local tastes.
John Kersten, Managing Director, IKEA UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Oman said: “We have been very pleased with the response received in Qatar. Our brand, concept and inspirational solutions have been very well embraced by our customers and in just 3 months we are recording above 6,000 visitors per day. The IKEA website in Qatar launched the same day as the store opening has had over 280,000 visitors so far who have viewed over 3,500,000 products.”
The local adaptation of the IKEA store concept is evident in the customer breakdown witnessed so far – with the largest split of about 30% being of Qatari background, followed by a close 25 percent of expatriate Arabs. Among the product ranges, bedroom and living room have proven most popular followed closely by bed textiles, children and storage and organisation.
The store also features IKEA’s trademark Smaland children’s play area – making shopping at IKEA easy and peaceful for parents while offering fun activities to keep children entertained. Across the three months of operation, IKEA’s trademark 550-seater restaurant has served over 65,000 customers. The dish in demand at the restaurant has been the Salmon, with over 7,600 portions sold while ice cream and hot dogs have proven popular at the exit bistro.
The Peninsula
