Ikea will open three "customer meeting points" across the country in the lead-up to the opening of its full-sized store in Auckland.

Last year, Ikea announced plans to open its first store in the Auckland region.

But since then, details as to where and when the Swedish furniture giant would open have been limited.

On Friday, the company announced it will open a full-sized Ikea store in the greater Auckland area where people can access the entire range and have the complete shopping experience, a planning studio in Wellington and a second smaller-format store in Christchurch.

The small format stores can range in size and have already been rolled out in parts of the USA, Canada and its first was opened in Australia in 2019. The small format stores usually have only a partial range of the company's designs, with bigger items not on display but available to order for delivery.

Ikea planning studio is a smaller store dedicated to kitchen and bedroom products.

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Ikea will also launch a full e-commerce offer during this period.

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD Ikea is set to open three "customer meeting points" in New Zealand.

Exact locations and times have not been released.

Country retail manager for Ikea New Zealand Jan Gardberg said the company was looking forward to making it to New Zealand and said more information would be released in the coming months.

"While planning has been under way, we have also been getting to know more about life at home in New Zealand," Gardberg said.

"Each year Ikea conducts Life at Home Research, the largest, most comprehensive and longest-running global investigation into topics relating to peoples' life at home."

In 2018 Ikea added New Zealand to this study and found the Kiwis prized privacy in their home life, he said.

​At the Ikea launch in January 2019, the company announced it expected to create up to 400 jobs once fully operational.

In June, the company registered Ikea New Zealand with the Companies Office.

Ikea New Zealand also filed a directors constitution, formalising the executive management structure for the local business.