Market shares of regional shopping centres with proximity to an IKEA warehouse : IKEA Centres Case Study

Abstract: This master thesis focuses on regional shopping centre’s market shares. It is written in cooperation with IKEA Centres that provided data regarding their shopping centres and funds for the gathering of statistics. The research question for the study is: What level of market share is valid for regional shopping centres in close proximity to an IKEA warehouse? In order to answer this question as accurate as possible the study is designed as a case study. The case is implemented on three different shopping centres, owned by IKEA Centres, with similar locations and market areas. The three shopping centres that are selected as subject centres in the study are Birsta City in Sundsvall, I-Huset in Linköping and Erikslund Shopping Center in Västerås. The case is focused on the regional shopping centres isolated and do not include the IKEA furniture store. The first part of the study concerns the delineation of the subject centres’ primary- and secondary market area. This is done using Reilly’s Law based on the prerequisites of the specific shopping centre. By using this method breaking points or borders of the market areas can be defined and located based on the calculated driving time. To be able to calculate the potential market shares for the centres, the buying power segmentation method is used.  The statistics are bought from Statistics Sweden and concerns mainly the number of households in the market areas and their disposable income. The market share is calculated by comparing the potential buying power of the households and the actual sales in the shopping centres. The results of the conducted study regarding the market share in the total market area is that Birsta City has a significant larger market share (60%) than the two other centres that the study concerns. I-Huset (17% market share) and Erikslund Shopping (25% market share) are located in regions with a higher population and more competition, the authors see this as the main factor to the difference in the market share. Results regarding market shares in different categories of goods are also presented. The three subjects’ centres offer several different collections of items. All centres have a large market share in the fashion segments that are offered, a wide tenant mix in combination with the target groups is seen to be an effecting factor.