Inside IKEA’s Modern Retail Experience

With the opening of IKEA's first "micro-store" in London Hammersmith in February 2022 and their upcoming move to London Oxford Steet to replace the iconic Topshop storefront, IKEA is entering into a new high street era to improve the accessibility of their products for their customers.

Donna Moore, Country Digital and Business Development Manager at IKEA in the UK and Ireland shares all on the company’s evolving customer experience journey.

CCW Europe Digital: What made the timing right for the big move to the high street?

Donna Moore: Today, we are operating in a fast-changing retail environment where shoppers demand fast services, high-quality products, low prices, convenience, and accessibility.

We are on a journey of creating a new IKEA that is more accessible, affordable, and sustainable, and are continuously looking for new ways to better meet these needs.

This also includes investing in our online offer, as well as bringing IKEA closer to where customers live, shop, and socialise to strengthen our omnichannel approach.

The new IKEA Hammersmith store will enable those looking to better their life at home, or for inspiration to do so. It will be the easiest access IKEA has ever provided to its products, services, and expertise.

As a transportation hub – with four tube lines and 68 bus routes travelling through Hammersmith – IKEA Hammersmith not only brings IKEA closer to local residents, but to the thousands of people who pass through every day. This will make IKEA more accessible and convenient for people across London.

We believe that through our omnichannel approach and ambition to deepen our impact within urban areas, we will continue to evolve to become even more accessible and convenient, bringing IKEA to where people are – whenever, and however, they want to meet with us.

CCW Europe Digital: What advantages can a high street shopping experience provide compared to what IKEA already offers?

DM: Location is important. IKEA Hammersmith not only brings IKEA closer to local residents in the community, but the new store offers a whole new way of using physical space. Compared to our traditional bigger stores, how do we show a unique offering in a new and exciting format?

IKEA Hammersmith allows customers to experience our range in a relevant, inspirational way that is reflective of the dramatically reduced size, with multiple entrances and exits and no one-way system in a completely new approach, cashless payments and a newly introduced Click and Deliver service. This empowers our customers to shop in a way that is truly accessible and convenient for them.

Our Deli is also a significant new approach to how IKEA Food can be enjoyed by customers, offering a range of new and delicious dishes that are perfect for grabbing on the go.

We think this can add value because we can get closer to the customer; people are now more considerate of their time and travel more than ever, so with these new stores we can still bring the IKEA magic through our products but combine this with our digital offerings such as Click and Deliver.

CCW Europe Digital: Physical stores are shifting from traditional consumer experiences to more immersive events. As a trip to IKEA is famously a “day out” for many customers, what can other retailers learn from IKEA’s approach to a physical shopping space?

DM: We want every customer who walks through our stores to truly experience the IKEA magic. We want them to be inspired by our room sets, immersive experiences, digital touchpoints, and our range and expertise; we champion our unique democratic design in making sure all of our range is functional, affordable, sustainable, and formed at a low price for the many.

To make sure that we are always surprising and delighting our customers, many of our units are under transformation.

Our Wembley Children’s Department is magical, so when our youngest and most important visitors are welcomed, they will step into a vibrant, immersive experience through an exciting aquarium-style adventure, taking them on a journey to get hands-on with our much-loved children’s range.

We hope that they will want to return again, and again, to revisit the wonders of IKEA – with mum and dad, so that everyone can enjoy the inspiration at IKEA.

The family dynamic is also changing; we want to have something for everyone. Time is also precious for people and spending a full day in IKEA is something that many truly value.

When you come to IKEA, we think about the senses, the sounds, the smell, and how we make it a ‘visual feast’ for the eyes. We have got coffee shops, barber shops, flower shops and so much to entice, all brought to life through our room sets.

We want customers to get those Instagram moments and post about IKEA. I think this is what brings the unique physical dimension alive –the immersive experience is at the core of who we are, we want every customer to have experiences that they want to share and make their visit to us truly meaningful.

CCW Europe Digital: As the retail industry evolves to lean towards the digital landscape, what can a real-life shopping experience teach us about customer feedback and shopping habits that data from an online site cannot?

DM: When we look at the total customer experience (CX) and feedback landscape at IKEA, we benefit from having a wealth of insights from both our physical, and digital capabilities, which as an omnichannel retailer is integral for gaining a full understanding of our customer’s needs.

Our stores offer an opportunity to engage in real-life human interactions, allowing us to appreciate emotional and human reactions. This is an important element of our total approach to understanding customer feedback, in giving us the face-to-face interaction and physical experience when it comes to all elements of being with our customers, from pain points to their shopping habits.

I think that human interaction is crucial to our understanding at IKEA, but we have various customer journeys today and I do believe that the digital and hybrid journeys such as Click and Collect and our new Collect Near You lockers can give us customer feedback.

These different customer journeys can also bring to life the way in which we are innovating to meet many more customers who need us.

We really want to continuously monitor in-store visitation to improve our Happy Customer score and secure the best experience for every visit.

We work with analytics and digital feedback, giving us in-depth and expensive insights, and our remote meeting points give customers the power to interact with IKEA from the comfort of their own homes, and at a time that is convenient to them.

Our physical feedback then plays an important role through human connection and emotional intelligence and will always remain to be a significant element of the total CX landscape.

CCW Europe Digital: Do you think the metaverse and using avatars could ever replicate the physical sensation of an IKEA store?

DM: I am delighted to share that we have already initiated some pilots on this – we had an avatar called Lotta in our Wembley store.

Customers could talk and interact with her, and she could help direct them around the store. It is in our dialogue every day, we have got a real open mind for innovation; we are already working with Artificial Intelligence (AI) specialists, Geomagical Labs, who recently launched an AI-driven digital design experience, IKEA Kreativ with IKEA US.

Whilst we have virtual and augmented reality with the IKEA Place app, we are excited about the advancements that are being explored across IKEA.

I had a meeting recently where it was all in virtual reality and we created our own avatars. So, we are already doing this in the meeting space today; the next step in thinking is, how do we bring that to the physical shopping space?

I could see an avatar navigating customers around IKEA in the future, so customers can get to the products they want to get faster. So, with new technology be introduced across IKEA globally, I think that these innovative launches could be introduced in the UK and Ireland very soon.

About Donna

Before being appointed to the role of Country Digital and Business Development Manager in May, Donna previously held the role of Head of Customer Experience for IKEA. She is an accomplished retail and customer experience leader with 30 years of knowledge and experience in the food and home furnishing retail sector.

Within IKEA, Donna is responsible for transforming and delivering customer-centric strategies and enabling change across the organisation, and the integration of digital products and platforms to meet the needs of customers and co-workers to enhance the end-to-end customer journey.

Donna also oversees the vital role of transforming IKEA’s Customer Support Centre into a modern remote customer meeting point, embracing digital capabilities to bring the range and services to the many customers, from the comfort of their own homes.