Retail store design is a marketing area that is regarded as a component of the store’s entire brand identity. To generate a specific appeal, a good retail store design considers visual merchandising, furnishings, lighting, flooring, music, and store layout. Part of the design is to manage traffic to convince consumers to “flow” around the store, allowing them to see more things and make impulse purchases.
Shopping may be a sensory delight if done right — colour, light, fragrances, and even taste all elicit emotional response in customers. IKEA, a furniture company, is one of the brands known for its captivating in-store experience. Their stores are meant to stimulate our emotions and senses. Here are the steps and approach involved in the process:
- The Principle: Gruen Effect
The Gruen Effect (also known as the Gruen Transfer) is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when consumers enter a store and become immersed in a deliberately overpowering experience. This causes consumers to forget why they came to the store in the first place, leading to further impulse purchases. Customers lose sight of time and become fully engaged in the new experience.
Customers’ mindsets shift when they are bombarded with feelings when they enter a store, according to Gruen. They forget why they came in and treat the store as an enjoyable experience. Customers end up buying more products than they intended to because they want to savour the moment.
- The IKEA Effect
In the 1950s, Ikea introduced its now-iconic flat-pack furniture style. There are the clear considerations of cost effectiveness and delivery practicality. Flat-pack furniture, on the other hand, has a significant subconscious influence on buyers. According to studies, putting anything together so that it becomes a whole object gives a considerably more favourable opinion of that object than purchasing it in its finished state. The Ikea effect is the name given to this phenomena.
The premise that touch is neurologically linked to emotion enhances this effect even more. This indicates that when we touch anything, the emotive section of our brain is stimulated, allowing us to feel a strong bond with it. Touch instils a sense of ownership in us and raises our estimation of an item’s worth. As a result, after the flat pack is completed, the joyful assembler will feel proud of their accomplishment and a strong sense of attachment to the object.
- Store Layout: Fixed Path Design
The retail plan of IKEA has a “fixed path” design, which means you must follow a defined road that leads you through the store in one way. Customers only see around 33% of the stuff available in most stores. However, because of IKEA’s fixed path strategy, you will spend more time in the shop and will be exposed to the majority of the brand’s products.
IKEA applies the Gruen Effect to their experience in a systematic way by employing a fixed path design. In the store, customers are overexposed to light, sound, colour, texture, and even scent. They’ve only made it halfway around the store when they’ve had enough. When the Gruen Effect takes hold, buyers begin to toss items into their shopping carts that they had no intention of purchasing but nevertheless appear appealing at the time.
The possibility that you can’t see what’s around the next bend adds to the sense of mystery, which attracts the buyer deeper into the store. Mysterious environments tend to elicit a substantially stronger liking, encouraging shoppers to continue wandering through the store. And the more you do that, the more inclined you are to buy something, especially the little products on exhibit like candles, napkins, and picture frames, which appear inexpensive in comparison to the larger, more expensive items.
- Bulla Bulla Merchandising
IKEA uses a merchandising approach known as “bulla bulla” to attract customers and increase sales. Many products are jumbled and placed in enormous bins in bulla bulla to give the appearance that there are many items accessible. These goods are frequently replaced to attract buyers’ attention and are designed to be impulse buys.
Our brains release dopamine, the same hormone that causes us to fall in love, when we find something surprising or new. That means your brain makes you pleased when you see a bulla bulla of fresh, cute, affordable plush toys. The Gruen Effect is fuelled by this one-two combination of abundance and novelty, which creates the bulla bulla appeal, promotes dopamine release.
- Creating a Completely Immersive Experience
The brand has stated that it intends to deliver a “more immersive experience.” Customers can enjoy becoming “part of the furniture” by relaxing in the places and, if they so choose, to become the centre of attraction.
Customers will be able to mingle with social media “influencers” or withdraw to the store’s calming sections. They will be urged to “interact, connect, recharge” and take selfies in a variety of activities, such as light therapy. Individuals will also be motivated to engage in classes in “creative rooms” where they will be able to build and repair home objects.
On the surface, it may not appear that IKEA’s food has an impact on their furniture sales. However, according to the company’s study, 30% of its customers visit the stores solely to eat. Food sales brought in $2.24 billion in 2017, making the company the tenth-largest food store in the world.
IKEA’s food contributes to the Gruen Effect, influencing how customers think, feel, and behave in the store. Eating and tasting food releases dopamine, which might make you feel happy. This adjustment in attitude can have an impact on how much money customers spend and what they buy.
Emotions influence our actions far more than we know. This is particularly true when it comes to purchasing decisions. As IKEA USA Creative Director Richard La Graauw put it: “20% of our buying decisions are based on logic and needs. 80%… are actually based on emotions.”
Ikea’s inventive ability to reach into shoppers’ subconscious is undeniably a key part of its success — and why it’s been imitated by so many other businesses. Despite the fact that Ingvar Kamprad is no longer with us, Ikea has carried on his idea of thinking outside the box when it comes to communicating with customers.
When it comes to purchasing, appealing to clients’ emotions and sensations may appear to be the best strategy. It’s a success for the business if we can make the store more exciting and customers buy more than they anticipated.
