Connecting the IKEA shopping journey from store to home

Abstract

With the growing use of digital channels, many retailers, including IKEA, are adopting an omnichannel strategy which integrates online and offline channels to the same shopping journey. With this background, this project aims to explore opportunities to better integrate IKEA's physical and digital shopping channels to enhance customer experience and potentially drive business growth.

During the contextualization phase, including literature reviews and customer interviews, revealed that customers often explore ideas rather than make direct purchases when shopping for home furnishings. Customers seek inspiration related to styles and colors, which IKEA's physical showrooms provide effectively. However, online interviews highlighted that customers struggle to relate IKEA's showrooms to their own home constraints and personal tastes, reducing the usefulness of the experience. Additionally, IKEA does not currently track customer interests or concerns in showrooms, missing opportunities to offer tailored guidance. Consequently, two design goals were formulated:

(1) Personalize the showroom exploration experience for customers’ home projects.
(2) Guide customers to the next step in their shopping journey after their showroom visit.

The final design concept, developed through multiple iterations and incorporating expert feedback and pilot testing, includes a kiosk and new features for the IKEA app. Each showroom will feature a kiosk with a digital twin of the showroom, enabling customers to learn more about interiors and explore alternative product options. The IKEA app will include a new page for saving digital showrooms from the kiosk, capturing inspirations with the phone camera, and applying virtual 3D items to a scanned room.

The design concept was tested with customers at the IKEA Amsterdam store to assess its effectiveness and was also presented to store workers to gauge its value in their daily work. The perceived value of the design can be discussed from three perspectives: customers, store workers, and IKEA business.

Value for Customers: The kiosk and app features made the showroom experience more personal, allowing customers to understand their own preferences and visualize items in their own spaces, leading to more confident decisions. However, the digital showroom on the kiosk was less effective for customers seeking specific items, and privacy concerns were raised regarding the app’s requirement to upload photos of personal spaces.

Value for Store Workers: Interviews with IKEA store workers indicated that the concept could reduce their workload by enabling customers to independently access information through the kiosk. It could also improve communication, as customers could use the product recognition feature to provide product article numbers when asking a question to a store worker.

Value for IKEA Business: The proposal leverages IKEA's existing AI powered tool, Kreativ, potentially increasing its usage by integrating it into key store moments. By allowing customers to save digital showrooms or photos, IKEA can gain insights into customer preferences, including product choices, styles, and colors. This data enables personalized promotions and targeted information, driving increased customer engagement.