Swedish home furnishing brand Ikea, which has been functioning for three months in Qatar, has experienced a footfall of over 500,000 visitors at its store in Doha Festival City.
Ikea Qatar store, which opened on March 11, offers over 7,500 products. Spread over 32,000sqm the store 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 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% of expat Arabs. Among the product ranges, Bedroom and Living Room have proven most popular followed closely by Bed Textiles, Children and Storage & Organisation.
Across the three months of operation, Ikea’s trademark 550-seater restaurant has served over 65,000 customers. The dish in demand has been Salmon, with over 7,600 portions sold while ice cream and hot dogs have proven popular at the exit bistro.
“Ikea entered Qatar with an ambition to serve the many people with affordable Ikea products and solutions and we are proud to have maintained the momentum beyond the launch.
“We are looking forward to interact with our customers through our Ramadan and dining activities beginning July and the launch of the new Ikea Qatar catalogue in September,” Kersten added”.
The Ikea store in Qatar
