IKEA Partners with Ombori to Eliminate Retail Paper Waste

Shopping at an IKEA home furnishings store is a visual feast for the senses. As customers stroll through the expansive building, they happen upon carefully curated displays depicting different rooms in the home. In every room, colorful accessories bring the look together. Nearby product displays make it easy to purchase the merchandise. Now, Ombori’s partnership launch with IKEA streamlines the entire process, while completely eliminating paper waste.

IKEA’s Design Consultation Service

Many customers love the IKEA sense of style, and they want to incorporate some of IKEA’s products into their own homes and businesses. To that end, IKEA offers a free one-hour design consultation with an IKEA design associate.

Over the years, countless shoppers have signed up for design consultations. However, there were frequently too few Design Associates to meet the high customer demand. Often-impatient customers had to wait their turn while becoming increasingly frustrated. Whether they left the store or silently fumed in place, their affinity for the IKEA brand was at risk.

The Pandemic Transforms the Retail Industry

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc with the global economy, including the retail industry. To help reduce the virus’ transmission, non-essential businesses (such as retail stores) were ordered to shut down indefinitely.

Suddenly deprived of their revenue source, many retailers launched eCommerce websites. If they already operated online stores, they added new merchandise to spur customer sales. With workplaces closed worldwide, many employees had plenty of unstructured time at home. Besides surfing the Internet, they ramped up their online shopping. This led to a drastic increase in eCommerce sales.

To minimize their virus risks, customers chose the home delivery or curbside pickup option. Stores increased their support teams to enable streamlined order fulfillment.

Many Consumers Alter Their Shopping Behavior

When the pandemic’s effects began to lessen, stores gradually began to resume their operations. Now, however, many shoppers limited their time in stores, making their purchases and quickly departing to lessen their virus exposure. When they required design or sales assistance, they expected fast service with few delays. Customers simply lacked the patience to wait in line.

Tech-savvy younger shoppers were particularly impatient. With multiple retailers competing for customers’ business, a store owner who failed to address this issue could find themselves losing an entire market segment.

Delays’ Effects on Brand-Customer Relationships

Brands often spend considerable time and money to build beneficial customer relationships. Marketing-savvy retailers can attract customers to the store with effective marketing, advertising, and social media programs.

Once inside the store, customers want a pleasurable shopping experience, and they want their desired merchandise to be in stock. If they require sales assistance, they may tolerate a brief wait in line. However, a customer who often encounters long lines in a specific store may feel justified in taking their business to another retailer.

IKEA Creates a Better Customer Experience

With customers becoming increasingly dissatisfied with service delays, IKEA realized it was time to totally redesign the customer shopping experience. IKEA leaders quickly noticed that many customers pre-planned their store visits, walking through the doors with their shopping lists in hand. Other customers preferred to purchase their items online and use the store pick-up option.

Either way, IKEA had managed to get customers into the store. Once there, they might purchase additional products and/or create a wish list for a future trip. Now, the challenge was to create a better in-store experience that would transform impatient shoppers into satisfied customers. Resolving the design appointment delay issue was extremely important.

To accomplish that goal, IKEA requested assistance from Ombori. The technology company had proven successful in elevating retail experiences through targeted system design.

IKEA Introduces Ombori’s Queueing System in Stores

Designed to transform the design consultation appointment process, the queuing system includes several integrated components. A customer website and a web-based staff portal are key to the system’s operation. A collection terminal, along with digital signage units, completes the system hardware.

How the Queue Management System Works

To schedule a design consultation, an IKEA shopper accesses the store-based interactive displays or mobile-friendly website. The customer chooses an in-store visit or a video design consultation. Customers often focus on the living room storage, wardrobe planning, or kitchen planning functions.

Once a customer chooses a time slot, and enters their smartphone number, they will receive an SMS confirmation. With this information, the customer knows the exact date and time of their design consultation.

Concurrently, IKEA sales associates can use the staff interface function to manage customer flows and queues. As part of the Ombori queue management system, online calls will be routed to employees who are available to accept them.

Important Environmental Benefits

The use of Ombori’s virtual queue management system has enabled IKEA to replace the paper-dependent “take a number” system that increases landfill waste.

By decreasing the use of valuable natural resources, there is less negative environmental impact. In addition, adopting a paperless queue management system clearly demonstrates IKEA’s commitment to sustainability.

How Retailers Benefit from System Implementation

Retailers reap several important benefits from using the Ombori system. In IKEA’s case, customers who schedule design appointments via their smartphones will enjoy a smoother design consultation without frustrating delays.

When shoppers are not waiting in line, the store’s general traffic flow improves. In addition, those customers are free to roam the store and ideally find merchandise that piques their interest.

Because customers can move through the store at their own pace, they may arrive at the checkout station more quickly. This means sales associates can process a higher number of POS transactions. In turn, the retailer generates more revenue, which contributes to increased profits.