Dive Brief:

• Ikea is finally ready to break ground on a distribution center near Chicago that will be a hub for stores and its growing e-commerce business.

• The Stockholm-based company bought the 72 acres in Joliet, IL, in 2007 and expects the center to be complete by 2017.

• This distribution facility is also near a freight rail line, and could help with logistics beyond the 10 Ikea stores in the region and e-commerce customer fulfillment. Meanwhile, a 49-turbine wind farm in Hoopeston, IL, will come online in the spring.

Dive Insight:

Despite the massive growth of e-commerce in general, Ikea has steadfastly focused on its stores, even as it’s expanded its own e-commerce. The retailer says that its customers still by and large want to shop for things they can see and touch, although it is also shifting resources to areas with growing populations, including city centers.

This center in the U.S. Midwest will enable the retailer, which right now only has such facilities on each coast, to more efficiently get its inventory to stores and to customers.