Paris, August 2026 — In June, a crowd packed into Italie Deux, a Paris shopping center owned by Ingka Centres, to watch adults hurl pillows at each other in a padded ring. The event marked the French debut of the Pillow Fight Championship, a U.S.-based combat sport league. Professional fighters offered free lessons to anyone willing to jump in.
The sponsor was Ingka Centres, the real estate arm of Ingka Group — the largest Ikea franchisee and No. 88 on Europe's Fortune 500. The group operates 38 properties, each including an Ikea store, across 15 markets in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The pillow fight was not a publicity stunt. It is part of a deliberate strategy to make shopping centers worth visiting again.
'A shopping mall should be like an amusement park,' said Sebastian Hylving, chief executive at Ingka Centres. 'If there's no queue outside, you need to change what you're offering.'
The strategy is producing measurable results. Footfall across Ingka Centres' portfolio reached 320 million in 2025, an 18% increase on the year before. 'We're having a very good year,' Hylving said. 'Visitation is above goal, and sales in our meeting places are above goal.'
The backdrop matters. Europe's physical retail sector has absorbed a decade of disruption. In the U.K. alone, 13,500 retail stores closed in 2024, according to the Centre for Retail Research. Yet European cities recorded a 39% year-on-year rise in store openings in 2025, per real estate firm JLL. CBRE's 2026 European Real Estate Market Outlook predicts a rising trend of shopping centers courting visitors with experiences — event spaces, in-store fitness classes — rather than relying on retail alone.
Ingka is moving faster than most. In Sweden, it has partnered with the Svenska E-sportförbundet to host e-sports tournaments. In 2025, a Pippi Longstocking–themed storytelling experience at its Livat centers in China drew more than 24 million visitors. This year, Ingka is bringing that concept to its other international properties. In India, a location currently under construction will include a garden designed for local visitors to eat and gather.
Architecture reinforces the commercial logic. 'The more relaxed and happier you are, the looser the grip on your wallet,' Hylving said. Centers are designed as a figure-of-eight loop, with natural stops to rest and refuel, natural light, and open sightlines.
The demand signal is there. A survey of 3,000 adults by Ingka Centres found that eight in 10 believe everyone deserves time to play, yet 30% cite reduced access to suitable spaces as a barrier. Nature zones, calm corners, and community hangouts topped the list of desired spaces. Three in four respondents listed at least one barrier to playing in shopping centers — but the company is betting design and programming can lower those barriers over time.
'Visitation is not something you can rely on anymore,' Hylving said. 'It's something you need to earn.'
CEO Times take: The 18% footfall gain is a market verdict, not a press release. Ingka Centres did not wait for a government regeneration fund or a Brussels directive on retail recovery — it read consumer demand, deployed capital, and redesigned the product. That is how free enterprise is supposed to work. The broader lesson for property owners on both sides of the Atlantic is straightforward: when the offer is compelling enough, people leave their screens and show up. Capital rewards clear rules and clear value propositions. Ingka has both.
