(Yicai) July 17 -- Ikea is selling a total of eight Chinese stores that the Swedish home furnishing giant has already shut down to improve its operational efficiency.

The assets for sale are the seven retail outlets in Guangzhou, Harbin, Nantong, Ningbo, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Xuzhou that close in February and a store in Guiyang that ceased operations in 2022, according to a recent announcement by Jones Lang LaSalle, the real estate service company responsible for the sale.

All eight assets have been fully vacated, with no outstanding lease agreements, enabling immediate handover to buyers, JLL noted.

This sale is just the natural follow-up disposal of self-owned properties attached to stores that have been closed, an Ikea China spokesperson told Yicai, adding that it aims to streamline the company’s overall operations.

Competition from the rise of e-commerce has reshaped China’s retail industry, insiders told Yicai. Ikea’s big store model faces mounting headwinds in site selection, cost management, and daily maintenance, so closing and selling loss-making outlets will help the firm recover capital and ease financial burdens, they added.

With increasingly fragmented, rushed consumer decision-making and rising demand for seamless shopping experiences in China, Ikea’s strategic focus has shifted from blind scale expansion to targeted localized development, the company’s spokesperson said.

Ikea China plans to launch smaller community-focused offline outlets to diversify sales channels and open more than 10 new compact stores within the next two years, prioritizing Beijing and Shenzhen, to complement its existing big store model, the spokesperson noted.

The firm is also rolling out instant retail services across multiple cities, partnering with major e-commerce platforms, including JD.Com and Taobao Instant Commerce, to build a multi-channel sales network, the Ikea China spokesperson added.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione