IKEA in India — Beginning of the Next Generation
As a designer I really admire IKEA products and the Scandinavian aesthetics but never had a chance of visiting their store. When I found out that IKEA was going to launch their first store in Hyderabad, India. I was thrilled!
When IKEA was opening, it was the buzz of the town and everyone I knew was eager to visit this mammoth of a store.
But when the store opened, The whole city and people from all around india turned up to the grand opening. It was insane! 😱
All the neighborhoods around IKEA were jam packed for the coming days. IKEA had created several parking spaces around the vicinity of store from where shuttle buses would operate to transport these crazy consumers. It’s like a festival in here. Lets me just say it was a grand welcome and with months of ahead planning by IKEA.
But this made me realize the power of the brand and what it carries. Along with the massive unmet need of Indian consumers in Home furnishing.
After some days, I decided to visit the store with my wife and discover this massive Indian IKEA experience. What follows is the story of my experience at the store and some observations I picked up as a Designer.
1. A Guide with a Pencil welcomes!
I am pretty sure, I have never been to any store here in India, that asks me to carry a store map and a pencil along with me at the start of the visit.
As soon as I had a pen and a paper in my hand, the shopping experience was different. I was much more attentive to what I was putting on the list and what I really wanted to shop. I was really questioning that do I really need this or not?
I was writing the product price on a piece of paper for which I would be paying later. Since it is in a tabular list, I could mentally add the prices in my head for the items I was shopping. This was amazing! I could now rethink and question what were my real needs and see If I being impulsive or not.
2. The Rules of Shopping
With certain constraints, colors and an extensive Information system, IKEA tries to ensure that the shopping is completed and managed in this massive store. IKEA is designed for the Literates. Its has its own positives and negatives in my opinion.
For a normal Indian consumer this can be quite overwhelming and irritating at first. But If you pay a little attention to tiny details around you, that really changes the shopping experience.
It took me a while to realize that the product names are immaterial. They are Swedish, I cant spell them or remember them. Also, writing them could be painstaking. But, numbers are easy! A tiny red appendage with each product was something that took care of this information gap and If I wrote bunch of these numbers correctly, my shopping experience was super stress free.
To be completely honest about it, I realized the importance of this number system at the end of my shopping, where I had gotten some product names wrong and the IKEA staff told me to get the numbers next time 😅.
After observing various price tags, I could really appreciate the label design of these tags. I felt that the Information Hierarchy is designed to keep in mind the placement, reading distance and its composition with other tags a certain space.
The Prices instantly popped!
The Product Tag was uniformly placed mostly to Top-Left to associate that to build a muscle memory.
Color took attention to the important details.
Uniform Dimensions across products. In cms 👏.
3. Lighting up the way!
Navigation is probably one of the most important tasks to get it right for a new store experience. The illuminated floor signages were surprisingly effective! I don’t remember getting lost or seeing people struggling to navigate themselves.
The overhead projection arrow signages a big thumbs up 👍.
4. Recognizing the Creators
IKEA managed to step into India by promising to promote local crafters and giving importance to local manufacturing. This is very much evident in their store’s branding and certain aesthetic choices.
But, as a designer I was even more delighted to see that certain designs were credited with the IKEA designer’s bio along with the product. It was such a different feeling to find out the designer of the product. It is a humane way to showcase designer along with their work. Digital designers hardly get this opportunity in the real life to be credited and be part of the lime light with normal everyday people.
5. Culturally Familiar
After having a fairly overwhelming shopping experience, finding familiar food was a comfort.
IKEA reimagined their restaurant menu culturally appropriate to India. With their oxymoron-ish vegetarian swedish meatballs, the food here is really good and priced apt as well. I believe that for a foreign brand to succeed in India, the food needs to be right and culture friendly!
6. Finding your Finish Line
I think everyone agrees that they hate to wait in long queues to check out for their shopping. But the discomfort starts even before the waiting. How to find which booth to go?
When I was heading towards check-out, I instantly saw illuminated numbers and arrows. This is again amazing! In this long vast sequence of counters, I could see from a distance where was the shorter queue and which counter to approach.
Using Illumination in dim environment is a smart way to take attention. Giving a sense of a quick closure at the end of a long shopping experience, is mentally a blissful feeling.
7. You bag what you shop
At check-out counters things really start to seem alien! The check-out counter is observably different than the most typical super-market counters.
Most counters are designed for making the attendant’s work easier and efficient. But at IKEA, they are designed for consumer as well as the staff. A simple conveyer belt helps the staff be stationed at one place and the products can magically travel to her for quick access. In most cases once you have placed your items on the counter, pretty much all you need to do is pay.
But it was surprising here to find out that you choose your carry bag and you yourself bag your shopping into them. The staff will just do basic assistance. I realized packing the items that I had bought was difficult. I was concerned for certain items that they might break or get damage with my haste. But to my surprise everyone around me was struggling but was positively embracing this change. People were more careful and cognizant of using less bags. I think as time passes, more stores are going to ask their consumer to be in command of their whole shopping experience. More Indians will learn to adapt to this change.
8. Self Assembly
With IKEA, We as Indian have entered the new realm of self assembly furniture.
The white piece of paper that we used to find while opening product boxes and thrown instantly into waste, will be more important than ever.
IKEA shines in creating furniture that is easily assembled and needs limited professional help. There instruction manuals are crafted with accuracy and with simple illustrations.
I am really looking forward to assemble my own armchair and bookshelf in coming days 🤞 and get the first hand experience of using an instruction guide. I am hoping it will be a nostalgic ride as to when we used to make toys in the game Mechanix while growing up.
9. When a brand visually Mic-drops
While exiting the store, you are revealed to the scale of IKEA. The grand design or the belly of the store is witnessed. While walking through the warehouse and making my way to the check out, all I could see were the long aisles of shelves and boxes. It was such a powerful moment, that couldn’t help myself imagine all sorts of absurd thoughts. How do they manage this place? How do they get to the top most box on the shelf? What if a box falls on someone? Why are all boxes brown 😬?
But I felt this was an important part of the whole experience. I was much more amazed and compelled to come back again and wander in this huge maze of amazing things.
In Conclusion
India has opened their arms wide open and welcomed IKEA. In light of having something new and fear of not missing out, more Indians are going to participate in this movement. IKEA is here to stay!
With IKEA more Indians are going to get the exposure to Scandinavian aesthetic and a discovering a different way to approach to their home needs. I cant stress enough on how difficult it is to find an affordable minimal smart furniture here in India.
Kudos again to IKEA for maintaining their Swedish roots by still calling their products with Swedish name. Yet also making it culture friendly to Indians by having affordable prices, recognizing local crafters and having Indian fusion food.
I hope on your next visit to an IKEA store, this article helps you discover some more interesting observations and design details and study the consumer psyche.
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