Jessica Fenol, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Nov 12 2021 07:34 PM | Updated as of Nov 12 2021 07:56 PM
The IKEA building in Pasay City on February 24, 2021. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News/File
MANILA (UPDATED) - The world's largest branch of Swedish furniture store IKEA will finally open in the Philippines on Nov. 25 after delays partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
IKEA Pasay City's opening was highly anticipated by Filipinos whose lockdown hobbies include decluttering, reorganizing, and upgrading their homes.
The 65,000 square-meter facility is roughly the size of 150 basketball courts. It houses retail operations, a warehouse, a restaurant and a call center for the e-commerce side of the business, among others.
But before the opening of the physical store, IKEA said it had to scale logistics constraints to ensure stocks are enough before the opening date.
In an exclusive warehouse tour with ABS-CBN News, IKEA Store Logistics Manager Lesniewski Jarozlaw said the firm is "doing its best" to ensure supply for customers.
"I can assure that our global partners and also we are here, we are doing our best to deliver the best availability possible to our customers," he said.
The construction of the world's biggest branch was first announced in 2018.
IKEA Philippines in late September opened its e-commerce site with some consumers waiting in virtual queues to purchase items as the company tests its online shopping platform. [LINK TESTS https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/09/24/21/ikea-ph-tests-online-store-official-launch-coming-soon]
Its e-commerce channel has been operating 24/7 since Nov. 3.
IKEA's do-it-yourself furniture which mostly comes in flatpack boxes upon purchase. Its clean and minimalist home decors as well as the practical and affordable line of kitchenware, bathroom fixtures, bedroom and living room accessories, among others, have proven to be favorites among Filipinos who unintentionally caused its website to crash on the opening day for sign-ups of its loyalty program.
The Philippine online registration for IKEA Family was also record-breaking as the first to reach 100,000 sign-ups on day one of the launch.
IKEA earlier tapped Filipino company Rags2Riches to become its partner for textile alteration services.
Platzer said the group would have its own space in the store to help customize textile products bought in the store.
The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted Filipinos to spruce up their homes with sales of home improvement items surging during sale events, several e-commerce platforms have reported earlier.
'Online shopping is on:' IKEA Philippines opens e-commerce store
Customers eager to get their hands on IKEA products can now purchase items online as the Swedish company official opens its e-commerce site but "with limited capacity."
"We're on a drill. Online shopping is on but with limited capacity," IKEA Philippines said on its website.
A quick scan of its online offering showed that some items can be "added to cart" while bigger items such as sofas would give users a prompt that the item is not available for delivery.
Once users proceeds to checkout, they will be shown delivery options such as different pick-up sites and time of pick-up, as well as parcel delivery and truck delivery.
The company earlier opened the registration for its IKEA Family membership. An unexpected surge caused its website to crash.
IKEA Pasay City store manager Goerg Platzer earlier said the e-commerce site would open ahead of its physical store at the Mall of Asia Complex.
IKEA Pasay City is set to be the world's largest with 5 floors. Two floors will be for retail, while the rest will be for a call center for the online operations, warehouse, and a markethall.