LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Swedish budget furniture

retailer IKEA opened a digital store on Chinese ecommerce

platform JD.com ( JD ) on Friday, as it expands its presence

on third-party online shopping sites in China to draw in new

customers with cut-price products.

Western retailers are experimenting with new formats and

channels to take a bigger slice of China's highly competitive

ecommerce market, as the government expands policies meant to

revive consumer spending.

IKEA, known for wooden bookshelves and beds, launched a

2,999 yuan ($417.50) gaming chair and 3,999 yuan gaming desk

specially for JD.com ( JD ) - much more expensive offerings than its

top-selling BILLY bookcase priced at 249 yuan.

But IKEA also plans to offer special discounts to mark the

opening of the store which will sell 6,500 products, and use

JD.com's ( JD ) logistics network to deliver to homes.

JD.com ( JD ) is the second Chinese ecommerce platform IKEA has

joined, after opening a store on Alibaba's ( BABA ) Tmall in March 2020.

"We will continue the great work we are doing (on Tmall),

but now we are also adding JD.com ( JD ) as another channel to reach

and acquire customers," said Tolga Oncu, retail operations

manager at Ingka Group, the biggest IKEA franchiser, which runs

IKEA stores in China.

One in five new IKEA customers in China came from Tmall in

the last financial year and that trend is going up, according to

the company.

IKEA has also expanded its store network in China, with

three new openings since September 1 last year, bringing the

total number to 40.

The JD.com ( JD ) launch is part of a 6.3 billion yuan ($877.03

million) investment Ingka plans in China by 2027. IKEA entered

China in 1998 and the country was for several years in its top

five markets by revenue, but has shrunk.

China's share of Ingka Group's overall sales has been

flatlining, at 3.5% of global sales in the 2023-2024 financial

year and 3.6% in 12 months before that. Ingka will report

results for its 2024-2025 financial year, which ends on August

31, in October.

($1 = 7.1833 Chinese yuan renminbi)