CHILE - Ikea has announced that it will open its first store in South America at the end of the first half of 2022.

It will be located in the Open Kennedy shopping center in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, Chile.

At the same time as it opens the first store, Ikea will begin operating its online store, thus linking its products with all of mainland Chile.

It will also open its second store in Mallplaza Oeste, also in the Metropolitan Region of Santiago, in the second half of 2022.

The landing on the South American continent will be hand in hand with the Chilean chain Falabella. Unlike the locations traditionally chosen by Ikea in other parts of the world, in Chile the company chose two central points of the city.

Ikea and Falabella have had an agreement since May 2018, which involves an investment of USD 600 million, and foresees the opening of at least nine stores in Chile, Colombia and Peru, along with an online channel for the three countries over the next ten years.