The crowds on opening day at Ikea. Photo: Marika Khabazi / RNZ
IKEA online customers hit by lengthy delivery delays
Shoppers from as far away as Canterbury and Otago headed to Ikea in its first week of operation.
Dot Loves Data has used insights from ANZ transaction data to show where shoppers in the Sylvia Park shopping precinct - which includes Ikea - are coming from.
Director Justin Lester said it confirmed that it was a magnet for visitors in its first week.
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The number of home and furniture shoppers in the Sylvia Park area coming from Auckland increased 1400 percent. The 1156 who came from Waikato was an increase of 1200 percent. There were even 238 shoppers visiting the area from Canterbury in the week, up 7833 percent and 270 from Wellington, up 3275 percent.
Another 93 came from Otago and 250 from Northland.
"These figures show how nationally significant the IKEA opening has been," Lester said. "What was interesting to us was people were willing to travel from all over the country… clearly they're going for the opening. Particularly from Bay of Plenty, Waikato visitation but as far afield as Otago, Canterbury, Wellington as well.
"This level of visitation from around the country is unprecedented for a suburban retail precinct. Ikea has instantly become a key economic drawcard, not just for the Sylvia Park/Mt Wellington precinct, but for Auckland more broadly."
He said while other homeware retailers could be feeling competitive pressure, Sylvia Park as a whole benefitted from the lift in foot traffic.
"Over time, we expect patterns to stabilise, and many retailers may ultimately gain from the broader uplift in visitation.
"If anything it has to have a cluster effect. There is going to be more people travelling to that area. If you're deciding I'll go to Newmarket, I'll go to the CBD, Albany, wherever it might be - if you want something you're more likely to go to Sylvia Park. Given the nature of Auckland, once you're there you're more likely to go across to the mall and shop there too."
Lester said the retail sector would find a new norm. "The Warehouse was a massive threat to everybody, they were a big threat to Briscoes, but Briscoes thrived. Kmart was almost dead in the 90s and had a resurgence. They've found their niche, they know what they are and they do it really well.
"Ikea is only one store at the moment but they're popular and they will do well."
Chris Wilkinson, a retail consultant at First Retail Group, said it was expected that Ikea would lift the category more generally. Spending on department stores and leisure had lifted 16.7 percent in the week, and in Auckland it was up 35.1 percent.
"Ikea's ability to open people's wallets would have been good for retail as once they are open, they typically stay that way. This year's more diffused Black Friday didn't punctuate the season as expected because the start was less defined and the offers seemed to last a while. There was less call to action which didn't drive excitement like it had done previously.
"But, there are some encouraging signs and retail has had a very busy weekend, so there's definitely plenty of action happening. Trends from the past week are that footfall - people coming into stores - is down across most centres, but average transaction values are up marginally. The key period is ahead and we think it will be positive as there's like some pent-up demand out there."
Lester said there had been good levels of growth in domestic online shopping.
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