IKEA in Australia has finally embraced the mobile age, and won’t force you to navigate its stores if you want to buy its furniture.
IKEA may well be the home of furniture with names you can’t properly pronounce, but it’s also a place known for its maze of a store layout. Almost like you were walking a furniture catalogue, IKEA takes you from one end of your housing layout to the next, showing you glimpses of what that world looks like from scene to scene.
But it’s also one that can actually get to people, particularly if they want one thing, but not to need to walk through the entire path just to find it, dodging people and kids as they walk. It’s almost like a theme park ride wait line, except with things for you to sit on and admire, checking the price tags as you do.
If you’re looking to skip the time it takes to navigate the varied IKEA walks, there are doors in between each section that allow you to skip parts, but Australians now also get one other way: an app.
Yes, IKEA Australia appears to finally be embracing the world of mobile apps, only after fixing its website in the past year or so to allow purchases with deliveries, something that was enormously helpful when the COVID lockdowns kicked in earlier.
It’s a slightly different story for the app, which does throw in a mobile shopping experience into the one place, but also includes product feeds curated for the home, and shopping lists that can be shared with the family. And important for the folks who want to avoid the IKEA maze, folks can use the app to buy and collect without entering the main of the store, or depending on where they are and how long they want to wait, have it delivered to them. That includes whether you’re looking at a lounge or a lighting system, bookcases or blinds, workstations or wireless chargers, or even IKEA’s take on Sonos speakers.
IKEA Australia did tell Pickr that one thing that hasn’t made its way to the IKEA app is support for the augmented reality component, which exists in the IKEA Place app and allows people to digitally place select pieces of IKEA furniture in their homes to see how they work and fit in. While IKEA has the support in one of its apps, it isn’t in this app, at least not yet.
It did say that one upcoming feature would support customers to be able to skip the lines inside its stores, and scan the product in using their phone from on the store floor, buying it without needing to line up for the cash register.
“The app provides a faster and smoother experience and importantly, lays the foundations for upgrades and enhanced features to be introduced in the coming months,” said Giovanni Rutigliano, Digital Manager at IKEA Australia.
“We’re hoping the app provides an enhanced shopping experience for our customers, whether at home, on the move or in-store,” he said.
The IKEA app is available now for Android and iOS in Australia.
