Ikea designed to make clients buy more: study
Published: 23 Jan 11 17:45 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/31590/20110123/
Ikea stores are designed as mazes so that customers end up buying more, a UK professor has determined.
- Ikea reports profit boost for 2010 (14 Jan 11)
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Ikea has denied the findings. Wandering through the store provides inspiration and there are shortcuts to all departments, Ikea Sweden's head of communications Ivana Flygare told Aftonbladet on Sunday.
Penn presented his findings at a lunch hour lecture on Tuesday after investigating an Ikea store in London, newspaper The Scotsman reported on Sunday.
He concluded that Ikea's success is due in part to the confusion customers experience in their stores, which are designed like mazes. According to the report, customers are forced to walk through the entire store before they can leave.
Penn noted that customers who followed the path guided by arrows on the ground quickly became disoriented and lost track of the direction of the exit, the report said.
"It's more S&M than M&S," he said during the lecture, which was posted on YouTube on Wednesday, referring to UK department store chain Marks & Spencer.
He acknowledged that all stores have shortcuts due to fire regulations, but they are never in the customer's field of view, he said.
"The way to the exit is always behind you," he said.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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Here's another newsflash: Supermarkets are designed to make us buy junk food.
Next, the boffins will be telling us that IKEA pipes the aroma of cinnamon buns into the store to make us stop at the caff!
shocking!
In other news candy tastes sweet to satisfy your sweet tooth!
(Shocking as well!)
I have walked out of IKEA's biggest store in the world , Kunges Kurva , Stockholm in 15mnts after buyng 2 stuff.
Seems UK is jealous of IKEA sucess....
UK Whites....work...for some time...
Some findings you got there, professor! Waste of time, I'd say..
I had a person from Marks & Spencer tell by business studies group this over 20 years ago - M&S move their stock around regularly to prevent you going directly tp what you want - so you have to walk past other merchandise and perhaps make impulse purchases -same reason the food is at the back
"It is so well done and so cunningly done ..."
Hey, Proseffor! It's called 'Marketing for Dummies'
'According to the report, customers are forced to walk through the entire store before they can leave.'
Not before being force-fed meatballs in the cafeteria!
He acknowledged that all stores have shortcuts due to fire regulations, but they are never in the customer's field of view, he said.
Guess his head was so far up his a**crack he didn't see what everyone else can find. Sheeesh!
Secondly to the "no s*** Sherlock" brigade can I just point out that this was a Lunchtime lecture, not a presentation of a 5 year research project to the Advanced Buildings Institute. Such lectures are usually posed at an elementary level in an accessible format
OK so how are the shoppers manipulated ? Are they aware that it's happening to them ? How do you find out ? How did Ikea do its research ?
Ask the Prof and then tell me it's all obvious.
But low marks to TheLocal for such pedestrian reporting of this presentation.
(And lower marks to thelocal.se site for making me type all this in again !! Ctrl-A Ctrl-C !)
BTW you can't fault IKEA on their returns policy and practice. I am a frequent visitor :)
Well nice to know all those years of study haven't been wasted. lol.
As regards being trapped in Ikea, I would much prefer doing time in San Quentin, than ever going back there again.
No wonder VIZ depicted a northern Swedish man throw himself off the roof of IKEA. The journey back down through the shop would have done for the same. He obviouslty wanted it over with quickly.
table without legs
bed without curtain
door without knobs
desk without drawers
so the concept is you have a mind that only check the price of the basic element of a furniture when you purchasing.
it's called innovation, it looks everything is cheap in order, but all about the business and logistics
very cunning, but well done.
You're not a woman.
It's the UK paper that wrote the story, but this "incredible revelation" was from a U Penn teacher (USA).
Thank you, Professor Obvious.
Where it is especially difficult is to re-trace one's steps to an earlier area of the maze - this is what really gets my wife disorientated who when in a supermarket tends to treat the experience as an experiment in 'random access behaviour' oscillating between purchasing impulses in geographically random locations.
The more interesting question is whether it works. Because for what I am concerned, I find this 'maze' extremely annoying. Yes, there's some shortcuts to get you just where you want, but I never seem to find them.
It is Professor Alan Penn of University College London
Everyone knows that most stores are built to keep customers in there as long as possible. The music that is played, the colors that are displayed, the lack of clocks, the flow of the store, the placement of merchandise etc. all contribute to the goal of earning more profit.
Although the scientists admitted that the exits exist in front of you and to your sides also, they are not within your sight or knowledge.
Next project on the professor's schedule is whether the buttons on the phone are placed with certain intention, or whether it is a random placement and of course the long anticipated research on whether there is a certain goal behind commercial billboards or is it just nice shiny pictures of random items.
Sorry, but that will get me, at least, out of the place as quickly as possible.
5 visits should be compulsory before couples are allowed to tie the knot. That would seriously lower Swedish divorce rates.
@renjithr So because they looked into the IKEA store layout makes the UK jealous of IKEA success? Not sure your theory has foundation there.
Also this article does tell us what we knew all along but it is interesting to see IKEA deny it.
http://www.90percentofeverything.com/2011/04/10/alan-penn-on-shop-floor-plan-design-ikea-and-dark-patterns/