Furniture chain Ikea will open three physical and digital customer touchpoints across New Zealand in the lead-up to the opening of its first full-sized store in Auckland.

Exact timing and locations of these customer meeting points have yet to be announced.

Last year, the Ingka Group announced it would open its first New Zealand store somewhere in Auckland along with an online offering around the same date, following Ikea Systems B.V. granting franchise rights.

The first Ikea NZ store will feature the entire Ikea range and have the complete Ikea shopping experience.

The company also mentioned opening a pop-up store prior to the launch of the full-sized store to give consumers a taste of what’s to come.

The Swedish furniture retailer on Friday revealed it is also planning to launch a studio in Wellington and a second smaller-format store in Christchurch.

“We are looking forward to opening Ikea in New Zealand with access for people across the entire nation,” said Jan Gardberg, country retail manager for Ikea New Zealand Limited. 

Gardberg said while planning has been underway, they have also been getting to know more about life at home in New Zealand.

Each year Ikea conducts Life at Home Research, the largest, most comprehensive and longest running global investigation into topics relating to peoples’ life at home.

In 2018, Ikea added New Zealand to this study.

“The global research found that privacy is one of the most important needs for creating the feeling of home,” Gardberg said.

“It also found that in New Zealand, 65 per cent of people say privacy is important to achieve time and space for activities that enable personal growth; and 74 per cent agree that privacy is important to our wellbeing, however, interestingly 11 per cent of people in New Zealand don’t feel they have a right to ask for privacy at home.”

Ikea stated it will announce more information about the study and the opening in the coming months.