On the day of entering Tmall, the official IKEA App was also launched. As an online channel, the official IKEA App and Tmall flagship store will complement each other in the future to jointly promote the transformation of IKEA.
After years of struggling e-commerce attempts, IKEA has finally taken an important step.
On March 10th, IKEA officially entered Tmall and opened the world’s first online official flagship store on a third-party platform.
In the first phase, IKEA’s Tmall flagship store launched more than 3,800 products, including best-selling products in the living room and bedroom categories. Initially served consumers in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and gradually expanded to the country. At present, the two parties have initially opened a membership system, and consumers can use the same account at the IKEA Tmall flagship store and stores, and the prices are the same.
On the day of entering Tmall, the official IKEA App was also launched. According to Anna of IKEA China, Anna said that the official app ’s SKUs will reach 9,300, which is roughly equivalent to 9,500 SKUs in IKEA offline stores. As an online channel, the official IKEA App and Tmall flagship store will complement each other in the future to jointly promote the transformation of IKEA.
What’s different this time?
The mini program pop-up store that cooperated with WeChat in August 2018 is the latest e-commerce exploration by IKEA. Prior to this, IKEA’s many e-commerce attempts were unsuccessful.
There are many reasons for the unsuccess, such as the complex business scenarios of the large home category are naturally not suitable for e-commerce, such as IKEA is always hesitant to expand online channels, and the lack of e-commerce experience. Four years of trying has made IKEA aware that it may be easier to get on the giant platform than to do it on its own.
So, the cooperation with WeChat caused a sensation in the beginning. However, the word “pop-up shop” shows that this cooperation is more like a simple water test-the product is limited to 5 limited sets, there are no large-scale products, and the service scene is extremely limited. Many IKEA fans have sold out without even being able to grab the product.
Screenshot of IKEA WeChat Mini Program Pop-up Store
After this cooperation, the outside world has been expecting IKEA to launch the official WeChat mini program. Turning around, the applet disappeared, but IKEA “hug” Ali. After joining Tmall, Ali and IKEA talked for more than half a year. On the first day of launch, the number of followers of the IKEA Tmall flagship store reached 184,000, and the live broadcast room was once paralyzed.
However, in ChinaIt’s not easy for a large e-commerce platform to do a good job. Logistics was the most frequently spit out in IKEA. Even internal IKEA employees said “ I can’t stand the slow speed “.
In order to ensure the timeliness of logistics, the initial service area of IKEA is limited to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui. SKUs are only over 3,800, less than half of offline stores. Anna said that this is a combination of logistics, operational capabilities and user shopping experience.
Currently, products for online orders are stored in IKEA’s own warehouses in Songjiang (large commodities) and Kunshan (small commodities) in Shanghai. In other words, the products ordered at the IKEA Tmall flagship store are all issued from the above two own warehouses, and the IKEA store has not yet undertaken the order shipping task (whether it will bear unknown in the future), and the distribution link is Leave it to a third-party logistics partner.
For delivery time, small items are within 48 hours after payment, and large items are 2-10 days after payment. The specific delivery time depends on the actual appointment time of the consumer. According to IKEA, In the Chinese market, 3 distribution centers, 5 consumer distribution centers, and 3 small parcel distribution centers are expected to be completed by 2020. To meet the needs of online orders.
The delivery fee is also of great concern to users. IKEA’s large weight Every tens of pounds, whether the cost of delivery is very cost-effective test of the desire to buy. For this, IKEA gives the shipping standard:
The weight of a single courier package should be less than 30 kg, ￥ 9.9 yuan / parcel (the delivery price of some products is different, the actual price on the checkout page shall prevail). An extra parcel is calculated for every 30 kilograms of excess (one parcel is calculated for the shortfall), and an additional 9.9 yuan is added for each new parcel.
Large items are divided into three grades: ¥ 119 / order, for intra-city delivery for cities where IKEA is located and all cities in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai; ¥ 169 / order, for intra-city delivery in provinces where IKEA stores are located; ¥ 249 $ / Single, city without IKEA mall. (Over 300 kg, an additional delivery fee of 60 yuan will be charged for each additional 300 kg)
It looks reasonable.
At the level of return and exchange, IKEA stated that “ As long as the goods are intact, with original packaging, original shopping receipts or invoices (if issued), customers can apply for returns within 60 days from the date of receipt of the goods”. However, Products purchased at Tmall ’s official flagship store do not support direct return to offline stores for the time being.. At present, the official flagship store of IKEA Tmall has not yet opened the exchange function.
Intuitively, the linkage between IKEA’s Tmall flagship store and IKEA’s offline stores is still quite fragmented. Whether the two can be completely connected in the future will greatly affect the IKEA online shopping experience.
Comprehensive “deformation”
Opening an online flagship store is just a microcosm of the slow-moving brand transformation of IKEA.
In November last year, IKEA announced that it would cut 7,500 jobs worldwide in the next two years. This is the largest job adjustment in IKEA history since the 5,000 job losses in 2009. The goal of personnel adjustment is to improve online business. According to IKEA, 11,500 jobs related to e-commerce and distribution will be created in the next two years.
Like the headquarters, 18 months ago, IKEA China had been thinking about strategic transformation, but it was opening the official mall on the PC side. Mobile Internet has developed in China for so many years, but it is trying to let users go to the PC to place orders (although there are more complete products), which is like the “slow and cautious” style of IKEA, which can also be said to be out of date.
But now IKEA has corrected its thinking. With the opening of the Tmall flagship store, IKEA’s official app has also been launched. Unlike the Tmall flagship store, which only serves Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, and Anhui regions, the IKEA App can provide assembly and truck distribution services to 227 cities across the country, covering 9300 SKUs, which is roughly equivalent to the 9,500 SKUs of IKEA offline stores. This is another grip on IKEA’s future development line.
Screenshot of IKEA App homepage
In line with business transformation, over the past two years, IKEA has transformed most of its warehouses into distribution centers for online orders. Among them, 14 new distribution centers for processing online orders, which accounted for the vast majority of IKEA’s investment in the previous fiscal year.
Globally, IKEA also implements Click & Collect online services in most of its stores, that is, consumers pick up orders online. The United States is the largest market for this service. In addition, in the new form of offline stores, IKEA made two attempts in miniaturized stores last year: opened the first IKEA experience center in the countryThe Wukesong Experience Center in Beijing, and the one hundred yuan small store that opened a small profit but sold a lot at the Taiwan night market.
According to Anna, two months later, IKEA will open China’s first small mall in Yangpu District, Shanghai. From exploring small stores to pop-up stores to launching small stores Ikea is working hard ” “Slimming”, cutting the huge, all-inclusive home hypermarket into separate offline shopping scenes to attract vertical users. Before 2021, IKEA plans to open 30 small stores in major cities, less than one tenth the size of large stores in the suburbs.
The sudden pneumonia epidemic has undoubtedly accelerated the transformation of IKEA.
As of March 9, IKEA has 14 standard stores, a small-scale shopping mall and an experience store reopened. In addition, 11 standard stores and 1 experience store will resume operations on March 11. Although the loss is immeasurable, for IKEA in a hurry to transform, the epidemic will undoubtedly generate more online orders in a short period of time, helping it to improve online services faster.