Furniture and homewares giant Ikea is reporting a quick return of customer footfall to its stores in China as they reopen after the Covid-19 crisis. 

The company opened another three of its large-format stores in Mainland China last week, including one in Wuhan city, and others in Germany and Israel, as movement restrictions were eased. More stores are scheduled to reopen this week.

Ingka Group, one of Ikea’s largest retail operating divisions, owns 45 shopping centres in China and Europe. It reported that customer footfall in the Chinese centres were back to the level of between 70 and 80 per cent of the numbers at the same time last year. 

Shopper confidence there was “recovering rapidly” a spokesperson for the company said. 

Most Ikea China stores have now reopened and some have been trading since the end of last month. 

However the picture was a little less rosy in German, where 40 of its mall’s 57 tenants had reopened and visitor numbers were at 63 per cent of a year earlier.

During the closures, Ingka waived rent and service charges for tenants and launched e-commerce initiatives to drive traffic to tenants’ websites. The company also helped tenants out with click-and-collect and home-delivery services.