A dive into the AR world of IKEA
How a renowned furniture retailer is smartly expanding its market
Oh no! This couch in our lounge doesn’t look anything I imaged it to be. The color harmony with the rest of the lounge is off and it looks too big sitting on that small circular rug. We need to return it!
How many times you have experienced such a thing when you shopped for furniture? Measuring available space, doorways. Taking pictures of the space in different lights. Taking time to go look at the furniture. Spending time and all this money to end up not liking what you bought.
And we are back to square one. Infuriating!!!
But IKEA with their new Place App has propped us to succeed by using Augmented Reality technology.
Stay at home, try different items, select what you like and get delivered what you experienced while interacting on the app.
Let’s see how the world’s largest furniture retailer is innovating and providing its customers with a wholesome buying experience.
IKEA as its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, said “creating a better everyday life for the many people”, is a company set to make their buyer’s life easier by innovating in the furniture market. Their “Ready-to-Assemble” furniture comes to mind, a smart business strategy that sets IKEA apart from its competitors.
The giant now is venturing into Augmented Reality Technology to further their goals of providing an outstanding service, when it comes to shopping for furniture.
In September 2017, the company launched the IKEA Place, an AR app, that is designed to take up all the hard-work, one needs to do while shopping for furniture. The app is free and available for both Apple and iOS in 26 languages.
The user can try out the IKEA furniture items in their homes before making a purchase. The idea is to provide an experience of visualizing the selected item in its intended spot without the hassle of bringing the furniture to your home.
Can you imagine bringing 10 sofas to your house, just to try if they fit or how they look in your lounge? No right? Absolutely, with IKEA the number is not limited to 10 but depends on how much time you have decided to spend on it.
This app reduces the resources going into making a purchase and prevents undesirable outcomes. Shoppers can virtually furnish their rooms with 2000 items available in IKEA catalog.
The process in itself is more enjoyable than regular shopping. Just take a picture of the space you want to furnish and start selecting the items you want to try and let the 3D rendering begin.
See a short advertisement for IKEA Place App
The smart app will automatically adjust the size of the items according to the space with 98% accuracy. The experience is further enhanced by features that enable the shopper to see textures and colors of the furniture in the lighting available in the room and the natural light and shadows created after adding the item provides a realistic visual.
The app has evolved from a version where only one item could be placed in a room to a version where multi-placement is possible and with more accuracy. It was one of the pioneer apps that utilized AR technology and has kept improving the critical aspects of it to match IKEA’s ambition of providing a seamless, joyful buying experience to its customers.
How this app will generate more revenue?
Bringing your attention to a Case Study Seth Godin cited in his book, This is Marketing. VisionSpring — selling glasses to people who need them. They let the potential buyers try out glasses for free and pay only if they choose to keep it.
IKEA is doing the same thing with their try and buy strategy but by utilizing AR. They let people experience what they desire, making the interaction so realistic that it gives the shopper a sense of already owing the product. This feeling of ownership even before making the purchase emotionally incentivizes the buyer to make the purchase, especially when satisfaction is guaranteed.
Read what Michael Valdsgaard, Leader of Digital Transformation at Inter IKEA, said:
“Seeing lifelike versions of Ikea’s products in rooms lets shoppers make a ‘reliable buying decision’. Most people postpone the purchase of a new sofa because they’re not comfortable deciding if they aren’t sure the color is going to match [the rest of the room] or it fits the style. Now, we can give them [those answers] in their hands, while letting them have fun with home furnishing for free and with no effort.”
IKEA Place also generated a lot of media buzz by making it onto the list of 50 most innovative companies and the Google search for “IKEA AR” spiked.
This earned advertisement IKEA gained, helped them reach the buyers, that were previously unaware of the app and got many new customers to try the app and make purchases.
COVID-19 pandemic has hurt the furniture business a great deal. And the trend continues.
So during a time when people are avoiding going outside or are in quarantine, an AR app that helps making furniture shopping not only fun and feasible but all together possible is a great win for IKEA.
IKEA Place generating Loyalty
Any brand can confirm; happy customers are loyal customers. What keeps people coming back to the same brand is the good experiences they had in the past with the brand.
Kerin in his book, Marketing: the Core, explains this phenomenon really well.
Experience can influence consumer satisfaction, consumer loyalty, and consumer willingness to speak positively or negatively about a company, product, service, or brand.
With IKEA going out of its way to provide a pleasant shopping experience, it will attract more customers and with their continuous efforts of improving the service, will increase that number and help retain the gained customers, following positive feedback.
Another plus with IKEA Place is that during its 3 years of existence, there is no other app that uses this technology in furniture market or can match the virtual experience and accuracy it provides, which makes IKEA Place, one of its kind.
IKEA as a brand has successfully added another service in their portfolio that helps them to improve the living standards and comfort of its furniture shoppers. In return, enjoying extensive media coverage, increased revenues and customer loyalty.
See the extended ad on how IKEA Place works here:
Read the Study done on IKEA Place App here:
