Ikea opens its first French compact stores

As part of its renewed focus on its core retail business, Ikea continues rolling out a new compact store format that it has been testing since 2025 in a couple of European markets and in the US.

After the UK, Poland, and the US, Ikea in France is opening its first two compact stores while announcing plans to welcome customers in ten additional locations over the coming three years. Portugal, Spain, Italy, Canada, Finland and a few other markets will also open their first compact stores in the coming months.

The first such store in France, measuring 3,000 m², opened in Limoges on 27 May, while the second one is set to open its doors in Le Mans in the coming period.

Designed to open faster, these small stores for towns and suburbs will be located primarily in retail parks where people already go for their weekly shopping. And although on average about a tenth in size compared to the classic store, they offer more than a quarter of the Ikea range for immediate pick-up.

Investing in the new smaller stores is part of Ingka Group’s EUR 5 billion three-year investment cycle aimed at opening new locations and improving existing ones across most of its 32 markets. In France, Ikea continues to deploy previously announced investments and is adding new ones totaling EUR 35 mio for the 2026 to 2030 period.