

"We are very conscious of the value of people's time," Ikea's Pucarelli tells CNBC Make It). Ikea sets up the store along a directed walking path that takes customers in one direction through nearly its entire inventory (provided you don't take short-cuts, which are also available in some places. In addition to the smart neuro design, Ikea's layout nudges customers to spend more money. The notion of that white there symbolizes clutter-free, pure, simple, transparent - without saying all those words." "The brain perceives everything through context.

"f Apple was to design a closet it would probably look like an Ikea closet," Pradeep says. Ikea's vast amounts of white also appeal to the subconscious, a neuromarketing technique tech behemoth Apple also uses liberally. "That is when retail becomes retail therapy." "A great store will give you the sense of comfort and familiarity and will also give you the pleasure of discovery," says Pradeep. Both of those things are positive triggers in the brain. The brain perceives it, understands its inherent value, and therefore desires it."īut within that context, there are always new and unexpected items to discover along the way. "Every single thing there is contextually in position. "Furniture is set up in its natural environment," Pradeep says, which your subconscious brain appreciates.
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Ikea's stores also appeal to the subconscious mind, which is the primary driver of decision-making, Pradeep tells CNBC Make It.įor one thing, the layout of Ikea's warehouse stores' showroom floors are generally familiar to shoppers - furniture, pillows and other home goods are staged in mock rooms.

The store layout turns retail into retail therapy

The brain looks for a single defining characteristic to differentiate among brands, products and services, and if that's not easily identified, the brain falls back to price, says Pradeep, who has worked with companies including Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, Pepsi, Subway and Mondelez in the neuromarketing space. Ikea's affordable style is its "category-busting-metric," or what makes it stand out from all the other brands in that space, he says. By producing more items in fewer finishes, Ikea takes advantage of economy of scale," she says.Īll this makes Ikea's "aesthetic per dollar" ratio very high, says neuromarketer and author of "The Buying Brain" Dr. The IKEA MALM queen bedĪnd "most of Ikea's furniture is available in black, white, or unfinished wood. Tweet: A clean design with a solid wood veneer. "The Malm bed is an excellent example of simple rectangular shapes combined to create a very chic bed." More can be produced in a shorter amount of time, increasing efficiency and decreasing production costs," Ashlie Broderic, interior designer for Broderic Design, tells CNBC Make It. Uncomplicated forms with very little applied decoration are easier to manufacture. "Ikea's aesthetic is pared down and minimal, which is not an accident. It's easier and cheaper to make affordable versions of such furniture look good. Ikea furniture is shipped and sold in flat-packs, which makes transporting it cheaper, and customers put it together themselves (or pay for someone to do it for them), keeping labor costs down.Īnd the trademark simple style of the furniture Ikea sells is not just because it's a Scandinavian aesthetic. Some of Ikea's furniture is made from wood, some is made from particleboard (recycled wood chips fused together), keeping production more affordable.
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In response, Ikea admitted the chests and dressers could be dangerous and offered free kits to anchor the chests and dressers to the wall, as well as refunds.) (Ikea has had high profile recalls of millions of chests and dressers after several tipped over, killing children. Even though our products are affordable, we don't compromise on quality," she says. Ikea has a "democratic design approach," according to Antonella Pucarelli, the chief commercial officer of Ikea retail U.S., which means that it "deliver form, function and quality products at a low price. In fact, price is so important to Ikea's strategy that the company first decides on the price of a piece of furniture and then reverse engineers the construction, the company says. At the heart of Ikea's success is value: You know what you're going to get when you shop at Ikea, and it's going to be affordable.
