Yep, you read that right, IKEA is arguable a lucrative theme park…sorta. Hear me out:
The Theme: 🚩
It’s Swedishness, from the colour of the logo & building, to the furniture names and meatballs.
Even with very few stores in a country, it’s very recognisable.
The Ride: 🎢
The store experience itself is essentially a long maze-like route from the entrance to the exit.
The ride is a well-curated one-way path where they take you through the entire store, from bed & bath to the warehouse.
IKEA takes the phrase ‘exit through the gift shop’ to another level where the ‘gift shop’ is the entire ride.
Family Experience: 👨👩👧👦
Activities for the whole family with food and kids’ play area.
Finding an item you want, jotting it down and hunting it down at the flat-pack warehouse aisles, like an actual scavenger hunt.
The Food: 🍴
Unlike conventional furniture shops, IKEA serves awesome Swedish food with local variants.
IKEA’s Meatballs and cranberry jam = Theme Park hotdogs and cotton candy
The IKEA Effect: 🛠️
Customers are more likely to value their purchases after they’ve successfully assembled it themselves.
Like a Lego or jigsaw puzzle, there’s a sense of self-achievement.
This enhances the customer experience.
IKEA succeeds where people feel like a trip to IKEA is an event, not a typical retail errand. Just look at the social media content around IKEA visits on IG and YT. The branding works as most urban homes have pieces from IKEA. While I don’t think every furniture shop should be like this, kudos to IKEA for the unique approach and model.
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