IKEA Xihongmen store manager Fredrik Johansson. Photo: Courtesy of IKEA

Southern Beijing is on the rise. Often labeled undeveloped compared with the city's northern districts, the south has seen a surge of residential complexes constructed over the past few years. Now, conveniently enough for furnishing those new homes, southern Beijing has also become the location for Swedish furniture retailer IKEA's second store in the capital.

Covering 50,000 square meters and with parking space for 1,750 vehicles, IKEA's Xihongmen store, where more than 9,000 products are displayed, opened to the public on November 7.

Kang Xuesong, 34, who lives in Fengtai district, was among the first batch of customers flocking to the store on the first day. "My friends and I had planned to visit the new store a couple of days ago after we saw the advertisement for the opening discount," Kang said. "We arrived at 11 am hoping there would be less people than in the afternoon. But it was already packed - we had to wait for 40 minutes just to get lunch," she said.

Attracted by the "simple, fashionable and affordable features" of European furniture, Kang has been an IKEA fan since the retailer's original Beijing branch debuted at Sanyuanqiao, near the North Third Ring Road.

In 2006, IKEA was relocated to Siyuanqiao to allow for more generous exhibition rooms and warehouse space. However, even the Siyuanqiao store has become famous for being overloaded with customers on weekends. In 2013, business hours were extended to 11 pm to make it more convenient for the city's office workers to shop after work.

In the past, Kang had to drive across half of Beijing, from south to north, to shop at IKEA. Now, she can simply take the subway to Xihongmen, and take a five-minute walk.

The Xihongmen branch aims to provide south Beijing residents with one-stop furnishing solutions, said Fredrik Johansson, 42, the store's Swedish manager. The Xihongmen store is the 14th store in China, and Beijing becomes the second Chinese city to have more than one IKEA store, with Shanghai having three outlets.

"We studied the demographics, and we know who lives in our area. We want to make the store more relevant to people living in southern Beijing," said Johansson, who has worked with IKEA for ten years.

According to IKEA's market research, the availability of lower average house prices than other parts of the capital has drawn an increasing number of newcomers to settle in southern Beijing, including a large number of young families with children. Newly completed subway lines have also made life in the south more convenient.

"IKEA's core customer group is women aged between 25 and 44," said Johansson. However, the store provides furniture solutions for all age groups, with products covering a wide price range to meet differing customer demands. It's also a family-friendly store, with supervised childcare facilities on the first floor.

The IKEA shopping experience stands out among furniture retailers in Beijing, but it has also given rise to the awkward phenomenon of many customers making use of display mattresses to take an afternoon nap, especially in the summer.

IKEA is trying to confront this problem. "We want people to be able to experience our beds, but sleeping on one of our beds for too long is not what we want," Johansson said, explaining that one customer sleeping for too long denies other people the chance to try the beds out.

"When we asked our customers about their shopping experience, we were often told that we need to wake up the sleepers," Johansson added.