The Brilliance of the Design of IKEA Stores

Summary

IKEA's strategic store design, including a maze-like layout, well-crafted showrooms, and thoughtful amenities like courtesy pencils and paper, contributes to its global success and ensures customers rarely leave without making a purchase.

Abstract

The article discusses the clever design of IKEA stores, which is a key factor in the company's impressive financial performance, even during the pandemic. IKEA's vision to create a better everyday life for many people is reflected in its affordable, functional, and well-designed products. The store's layout is intentionally maze-like, ensuring customers see a wide range of products, while the showrooms effectively demonstrate how to maximize small spaces, inspiring customers to purchase more. IKEA also provides pencils and paper for shoppers to list items, subtly encouraging them to buy what they've noted. Additionally, the outskirt locations of IKEA stores make customers more likely to buy something to make the long trip worthwhile. The in-store dining experience, particularly the famous meatballs, further contributes to customers spending more time and money in the store.

Opinions

The author believes that IKEA's store design is brilliant and purposefully constructed to lead customers through a curated shopping experience.
IKEA's showrooms are seen as a powerful tool to inspire customers and remove perceived limitations of small living spaces.
The provision of pencils and paper is viewed as a strategic move to involve customers in the shopping process, making them more committed to purchasing the items they list.
The location of IKEA stores on the outskirts is considered to have a psychological impact, prompting customers to justify their trip by making purchases.
The article suggests that IKEA's food offerings, especially the meatballs, play a role in keeping customers in the store longer, which can lead to increased spending.

The logical reasons why you couldn’t leave empty-handed. They don't leave it to pure chance.

As of April 2022, IKEA operates 466 stores in 63 countries across multiple regions. In the financial year of 2021, the gross profit of IKEA globally amounted to about 12.88 billion euros, against 11.73 billion recorded just a year ago. Lest we forget this is the pandemic year and the company is still able to improve its profit, let alone sustain the business.

To create a better everyday life for the many people — IKEA’s vision

IKEA set out to provide affordable, functional yet well-designed furnishing to customers. With globalization though, and its ensuing costs along the way, it is inevitable that in some parts of the world, IKEA’s products have become the symbol of luxury. Even then, as the financial report shows, the company and its presence are stronger than ever.

Our mission as a business is ‘to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them’ — IKEA’s mission

I don’t know about you but I for one, am sure have not left an IKEA empty-handed. Never. Mine was for the simplest reason. IKEA subsidizes my parking ticket if I made a purchase, no matter how small. For that reason alone, I’ve always made at least a small purchase, the smallest being a mug, a mug that I have been using for close to a decade and still using to this day.

Not many can come out of the store unscathed. Not many may understand the reason behind this. The store designers behind IKEA have done a brilliant job. Perhaps these will shed some light.

1. The Maze Layout of the Store

Every IKEA store is designed similarly. If only a word can be chosen to describe them, it will be maze-y. The way the floor plan is designed, it is basically an IKEA catalog, in physical form. From the showrooms to the marketplace, then to the bottom floor, warehouse, and checkout counters, it is designed to make sure that you see everything they have to offer. Sure, there are short-cut routes available for cases in which customers and more importantly staff need to use on occasions but the well-thought placement of arrows and the uni-directional customer flow means the odds are not on your side.

2. The Amazing Showrooms

It always amazes me how marvelous the showrooms are designed. IKEA excels in showing customers that small space is not an issue. It defies the common perception that small houses (and their relatively low price) should not define the limits of imaginative space. It gives hope to homeowners that their house could be as well and nicely designed as their better-doing friends. It unlocks the emotional price limit of home decorating one may have set relative to their home.

Showrooms give the unimaginative customers an image that is hard to forget. The smart placement of smaller and more affordable furnishings all over the place further increases the chances that you will add a least an item or two to your list. Pillows on sofas, organizers on tables, bed lamps beside the bed, these are just a few clever maneuvers to name a few.

3. Courtesy Pencils and Paper

Speaking of shopping lists, no one does this better than IKEA. The general advice to consumers is to prepare a shopping list before we head out. This ensures that we keep our focus and do not wander and thus spend unnecessarily by impulse. Well, at least that’s the idea. In IKEA, the concept has been turned upside down. IKEA encourages you to make a list, even going as far as providing you with courtesy pencils and paper. You make the list, you own it. You’ll more likely fulfill the self prophecy of buying the items off the list you have made. Coupled with the maze-y floor plan, you would likely add more items to your list, just in case you forgot about the details of the item later.

4. Outskirt Store Locations

Most IKEA stores are not within the city centers. While there are obvious drawbacks to this strategy, surprisingly there is an advantage to it. Making an effort for a long drive to the store, we make mental note to ourselves to make the trip worthwhile. How? By showing up with haul at the end of the trip. No one likes a meaningless trip. You know you’d love to get something. Anything.

5. The Meatballs Effect

As the old saying says, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. In this case, IKEA has done well assimilating the name of IKEA with meatballs, so much so that you would be able to interchange the reasons you go to IKEA. For food or furnishing items? Why not both? That’s the reason why IKEA has so much pull. Moreover, making sure your stomach is filled ensures that you are in no hurry to leave.