Home furnishings giant Ikea France has signalled it may slow down its rate of shop openings in favour of concentrating on its e-commerce business. This follows Ikea Australia doing a similar thing in September.

Ikea is one of the largest home furnishing chains in the world yet has focused primarily on its giant shops. Ikea France has 32 stores and planned on having 40 open by the end of 2020.

In a news conference the Chief Executive for Ikea France Olivier Baraille said, “The speed of the expansion plan may not be what was announced… We are reviewing the best solutions so that we can be as near our clients as possible.”

The Swedish company is known to be pushing its e-commerce business globally due to demand from customers who cannot always make the journey to one of its stores. In Australia it is opening more small format stores where customers can collect goods bought online. If this format is pursued across the EU it could be a massive game changer for that market.