IKEA is known as a brand for the home, but while we tend to think of furnishings, its commitment to ‘Life at Home’ goes further. Our task here was to open up ideas for how it could coherently expand its offer into services.
The future of retail
Our inspiration started with IKEA’s vision for being ‘people and planet positive’. We took the long view of the future of retail and potential customer needs, thinking about food, energy and finance – areas connected with the home. Sustainability and circularity were major themes. For example: how could an in-store service expand the life of a product?
Making ideas tangible
Over the course of a year we worked closely with the in-house team. We used in-depth desk research to stimulate collaborative workshops and visualised a broad range of ideas to show how they might work in store. Storyboards and annotations brought the user and market context to life, enabling stakeholders to evaluate the potential of each idea.
Partnering with Quarterre gave us structure and focus. We were able to explore widely and bring ideas to life visually to help us share them internally.
Head of Disruptive Innovation, Ingka
