Fall 2023

Identifying problem areas within IKEA's purchase path

Role

UX Researcher

Timeline

6 weeks (September -  November 2023)

Methods

Competitor Analysis, User Interviews, Ethnography

Project Overview

This case study delves into understanding how people behave when they shop at IKEA to identify opportunities for improvement. The study aims to provide actionable recommendations to enhance the overall shopping experience at IKEA and better meet the needs of its customers.

Research Goal

Goal: Improve IKEA's product search and click-and-collect experience

IKEA is a globally recognized furniture retailer, but several pain points exist in their digital-to-physical journey. This project identifies these problem areas and provides actionable recommendations to improve the overall customer experience.

Business Impact

Why Does This Matter?

Poor search experience leads to abandoned shopping sessions

Click-and-collect friction reduces customer satisfaction.

Service gaps create competitive disadvantage against other retailers.

Research Methods

Why the use of Mixed Methods?

A mixed-method research approach was chosen to gain comprehensive understanding of market positioning, interface issues, and actual user behavior. Each method brings unique data, and combining them reveals insights that single methods miss.

Competitor Analysis

User Interviews

Ethnography study

Competitive Analysis

Understanding IKEA's market position

IKEA has 2 main competitors in the furniture e-commerce space:

Wayfair

Online-first with extensive filtering options.

Canadian Tire

Multi-category retailer with integrated online-offline experience

Analysis Criteria:

  • Business heuristics and goals alignment

  • User experience comparison

  • Usability heuristics (Nielsen's 10 principles)

  • SWOT analysis

Business Goals Comparison

All three companies follow similar objectives, creating opportunities for IKEA to differentiate, these are their shared goals:

Increase Revenue

Drive online sales and conversions

Increase Reputation

Enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction

Reduce Costs

Optimize operational efficiency

Competitive Analysis

Key Findings
1

Problem: Products show up in wrong places

  • Bed frames appear in the sofa section

  • When you search for something specific, unrelated items show up

  • Product names are inconsistent and confusing throughout the site

2

Problem: Filtering options are messy

  • Sorting choices are unclear and poorly organized

  • Price filtering doesn't work the same way as the sorting function

  • When you leave the filter page, your selections don't save

3

Problem: Poor Error Prevention when purchasing a product.

  • Hard to see when something goes wrong during checkout

  • You can try to buy something that's actually unavailable

  • Delivery and pickup options show up inconsistently

User Interviews

The perfect research opportunity presented itself - all of my roommates had recently gone through IKEA furniture shopping for their bedrooms.

Living in a student house where everyone was simultaneously furnishing their rooms created an ideal natural experiment. Instead of recruiting strangers, I had access to people who had just completed the exact journey I was studying.

Based on the findings from the competitor analysis, the key problem that we will be focusing on is Improve IKEA's product search and click-and-collect experience.

The Interviews Setup:

Participants

5 Participants aged 18-25, who had recently shopped for bedroom furniture at IKEA

Format

60-minute sessions (In-person)

Structure

Warm-up questions, about their experience + task recreation.

Focus

IKEA journey experiences, pain points, thoughts and feelings.

User Interviews

Meet Valeria

User Interviews

Valeria's Journey

User Interviews

Key Findings

This is what we found on Valeria's Journey:

1

Unrelated Items

  • When searching for a specific item, products that are not considered alternatives show up even after stating or filtering options.

  • searching a specific category item and unrelated items from other categories appear.

2

In stock and out stock

  • Shows that the product is in stock, then in the checkout is unavailable

  • Frustration over products stating they are in stock when they are not.

  • Ordering out-of-stock products.

3

Locating Products

  • The recently viewed option doesn’t stand out and is the last thing people see

  • Names causes confusion and makes it hard to locate the product.

User Interviews

Conclusion

Thanks to the user interviews, I was able to understand users' pain points from Valeria's point of view. Fixing these problems will lead to an increase in revenue, reputation and also a decrease the costs for the company while still giving users a good experience.

As next steps, I decided to do an ethnography study, to observe and analyze how their step by step journey is like in real time, this time, focusing on ordering online and picking up a product using the click and collect option.

Ethnography Study

Having my roommates participate again gave me an advantage: I could observe how they navigated the click-and-collect at stores process after experiencing the online frustrations we'd discussed.

The Hypothesis:

  • Users tend to prioritize online purchases for convenience but may encounter challenges during the in-store pickup process

  • Users tend to perceive the online-to-in-store transition as a crucial aspect of the purchasing process

  • Users tend to like buying things online because it's easy, but sometimes, when they go to pick up their orders in the store,

Research Questions:

  • How do users find the products they want to purchase?

  • How do users like to find the online pickup option?

  • How do users find the in-store pickup experience?

  • Why do users choose in-store pickup instead of buying in person?

Below I made an agenda to organized, time manage and have the priorities straight for the study:

The Ethnography Setup:

Participants

3 participants aged 18-25.

Location

IKEA inside, click-and-collect area

Duration

20 minutes per session

Observation

Digital system usage, staff interactions, environmental factors

Ethnography Study

Meet Carlos, Victor & Sebastian

Carlos, 20 years old

  • A former college student that is constantly moving around

  • Goals: Use digital service easily without any hassle.

  • Needs: Be able to understand easily all steps

  • Frustrations: Unable to see signs clearly

  • getting on time to a place, and getting delayed because of product not being ready.

Victor, 21 years old

  • A recently graduate student, that enjoys IKEA’s products

  • Goals: Know all the information before getting into store.

  • Needs: Get their product fast.

  • Frustrations:lack of proper digital services

  • Following their instincts and just guessing what to do.

  • Not knowing who to ask for help

  • Unable to see signs clearly

Sebastian, 19 years old

  • A former college student that is constantly moving around.

  • Goals: know where to pick up the product

  • Needs: Get their product fast.

  • FrustrationsUnable to differentiate where to pick their product

  • People who seem unapproachable.

  • Not knowing who to ask for help

  • Unable to see signs clearly

Ethnography Study

Their Journeys

Ethnography Study

Key Findings

This is what we found on Valeria's Journey:

1

Staff presence

  • The lack of staff makes it seem as if the click & collect section is empty and not working.

  • Staff don’t look approachable around the area

  • Not asking for the customer a confirmation that the product is for them.

2

Use of Systems

  • The digital monitors have post-its (paper notes) in a corner pasted in the monitor. ( not customer ID instead add order #)

  • asking for the policy checkbox two times

  • The monitor not working at times, making customers scan a paper QR code in front of the monitor.

  • waiting list TV showing time expectations (and still being delayed).

3

Digital Confirmations

  • Lack of email confirmations

  • Unclear instructions on how time pickups work

  • The lack of instructions on where to go before getting into stores.

Design Interventions

Here's how we can make the experience better.
1

Staff Presence

Improve staff visibility and approachability in the click & collect section to enhance the perception of an operational and customer-friendly area, like providing a click for staff physical button, so staff can be there at the times when they are needed, for the click & collect for a customer.

2

Use of systems

If digital monitors aren’t working provide a more professional and clearer way that help customers what to do next. clearer qur code board with instructions provided.

3

Digital confirmations

  • Explain in their email confirmation where to go before they come into the store for pickup.

  • Implement SMS Messages about their order pickup, providing the customer a more fast way to know when to pick up their order.

Ethnography Study

Conclusion

After watching how people use the click & collect service with our participants, we found out what they struggle with. The journey of Carlos, Victor, and Sebastian helped us and showed us the whole user journey and the different experiences they had, and for the business it reduces costs, increase revenue and reputation.

Additionally, they helped us understand different kinds of users. With these tools, we learned about the problems users face and can now suggest ways to make the click-and-collect experience better for everyone.

Reflections

Working with Constraints

I was lucky enough to gather sufficient, varied data from my research. Due to unforeseen circumstances during my ethnography research, the weather was challenging and we couldn't explore the locker click & collect option at IKEA. In another scenario where I would have gathered the same data from the 3 participants, I would need to start over. I would have loved to take my participants to the other IKEA click & collect options they offer, I probably would have gathered even more data on their experiences and how they navigate different systems.

Daniela Guevara 2025

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