The news: Ikea is closing three “plan and order with pickup” locations in the Washington, DC area, including a store in Georgetown that opened less than a year ago.

Why it matters: The closures are notable given Ikea’s yearslong push to strengthen its fulfillment network and open new stores. But they don’t signal a broader retreat. Earlier this year, Ikea outlined plans to open 10 more stores, including its first Oklahoma location and its first city-center store in Los Angeles.

The context: Ikea is far from alone in experimenting with smaller formats to get closer to customers.

Macy’s has adjusted its store mix to include smaller-format Macy’s and Bloomie’s locations, Whole Foods is expanding its Daily Shop format, and Best Buy is opening small- and medium-format stores to reach underserved or high-demand areas.

But smaller doesn’t automatically mean better. Like Ikea, Macy’s has closed some small-format locations even as it continues experimenting with the concept.

Implications for retailers: Three closures out of a much larger rollout don’t amount to a reversal. Instead, they highlight how much execution matters when retailers shrink their footprints. Ikea’s plan-and-order format trades inventory and square footage for proximity and service, but that equation only works if a location generates enough visibility, convenience, and traffic to justify its costs.

That can be particularly challenging for Ikea. Its traditional big-box stores sit near major roads and function like three-dimensional billboards, generating awareness simply through their scale and visibility. Smaller urban locations don’t necessarily have that advantage, so they have to work harder to drive traffic through location, services, and the customer experience.

The Georgetown closure—less than a year after it opened—suggests Ikea is still figuring out where the smaller-format stores make sense. There’s little reason to keep an underperforming location open simply to validate the broader strategy. The more important question is whether Ikea can apply what it learns from these closures to identify markets where smaller stores improve access while still generating sustainable returns.