Dive Brief:
- Ikea has implemented Upptäcka self-service kiosks across all of its locations, the company announced last week. Self-service can help stores handle six times the number of customers compared to manual processes.
- Each store has multiple kiosks. The exact number is determined by traffic, queue length, and data from kiosk usage and performance, and they can be moved, added or removed to better meet a given location’s needs, according to Stojanka Karlsson, product owner for Upptäcka.
- Associates can now spend more time on complex customer interactions rather than operating registers, Karlsson said in an email. “Our coworkers are experts in home furnishing advising and planning, and we want to empower them to spend more time with customers that really need their help,” he said.
Dive Insight:
The Upptäcka self-service kiosks are designed to help customers throughout their journey, whether they just entered the store or are ready to check out.
Each kiosk defaults to showing contextual information on its home screens based on location, according to Karlsson. A kiosk at the entrance to the store is set up to immediately help with navigation, while a kiosk in a living room showroom features a sofa configuration tool.
A majority of kiosks are located near checkout, where customers can be guided to a product’s location in the warehouse or place an order to be collected by associates.
“The user interface is built in a way so it can answer customers’ questions and support customers in the quickest possible way while keeping them on the way to purchase and enabling them to enjoy their store visit,” Karlsson said.
Ikea will add more capabilities to the Upptäcka kiosks in the future. Plans include the option to place 3D projections of in-store products in pre-furnished rooms to get a better idea of how they will look.
“We are very data driven, and we use data to learn about our customer behaviors in the stores to be able to meet their needs in the best possible way,” Karlsson said.
