What are the secrets of the IKEA marketing strategy? The world’s largest furniture brand hosted over 3.8 billion visitors to its online channels in 2023. Moreover, the firm boasts a higher-than-average conversion rate of 1.7%. So what tactics enable the company to be so effective in ecommerce?
The answer lies in the unique IKEA marketing approach that creates a connection and engages shoppers. Discover the key strategies driving IKEA’s strong performance in an ever more competitive online arena.
IKEA’s marketing strategies: 7 tactics you should know about
The IKEA marketing strategy involves a range of tactics and approaches, encompassing digital marketing, brand identity, technological innovation and more. Here are some of the key moves IKEA has made to boost online conversions:
1. Prioritize relationship marketing
IKEA moved away from transactional to relationship marketing in order to better connect with buyers. The company’s membership program, IKEA Family, offers workshops, discounts, and product insurance, to make shopping more appealing for buyers.
As part of the IKEA Family initiative, stores were fitted with restaurants and play areas for children. Over time, these have become a central feature of the brand’s appeal. For many shoppers, IKEA is now as famous for meatballs as it is furniture. Leveraging this further, recent ad campaigns in the UK have highlighted the availability of a different £3 ‘Dish of the Day’ each weekday. Designed to appeal to consumers struggling with cost-of-living pressures, the campaign has the simultaneous effect of boosting brand perception.
In recent years, the company has also revamped its home products to better cater to buyers’ tastes. Meanwhile, new offerings include a gift registry and online forum. In addition, the furniture chain contributes to community projects to strengthen buyer relationships. This includes campaigns to help children, homeless people, students, and the environment.
The IKEA marketing strategy includes interactive product experiences with 3D and AR
And looking internally, the brand ensures its staff and partners abide by their customer-centric values, asking its employees to focus on togetherness, cost-effectiveness, and enthusiasm, while striving to cultivate a work environment that fosters these values. This then translates right down to every customer interaction.
Further underlining its credentials in the area, the firm also has a code of conduct for its suppliers that aligns with customer interests. Taken as a whole, IKEA’s relationship marketing strategy has contributed strongly to the brand’s international success.
How can you implement it? While not every business can build restaurants or family play areas, customer loyalty and experience are at the core of IKEA’s marketing strategy. Investing in these areas enhances brand perception and encourages affinity and repeat purchase. Similarly, developing a brand identity and values, and ensuring staff understand and demonstrate those values, helps ensure consistency and a positive impact in every customer interaction.
2. Create interactive digital experiences
IKEA is a pioneer in using innovative digital experiences to build customer trust online. Recognizing that 2D visuals alone aren’t enough for considered purchases like furniture, the company introduced IKEA Place in September 2017.
This augmented reality (AR) application allows users to explore products from all angles and visualize them in their own homes. Shoppers can change product locations and view alternatives using the AR tool, seeing how an item will fit the space and match the existing décor. This helps buyers get a full and accurate understanding of the product they’re buying, enabling them to purchase online with an increased level of confidence.
“When we first launched IKEA Place, we gave our customers the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ for the first time since IKEA was established.
- Michael Valdsgaard, Leader Digital Transformation, Inter IKEA Systems
The IKEA marketing strategy then took this further with IKEA Kreativ, a new application that leveraged virtual showroom technology. IKEA Kreativ allows users to customize room templates with different furniture pieces and styles, in order to experiment and find their ideal purchases. Furthermore, the app enables users to scan their own room, then replace their own furniture with IKEA products, creating an editable replica of the users’ space.
3D and AR visualizations have been shown to boost conversion rates by up to 200%. Offering customers this capability heightens the sense of trust and clarity in purchases, while providing a fully personalized buying journey.
How can you implement it? IKEA’s marketing strategy ensures products are accurately represented and engaging on digital platforms. To achieve these goals, incorporating 3D and in-home visualizations is fast becoming an online standard. To get started, you’ll need to create 3D product models optimized for these kind of customer experiences, and work with a technology partner to incorporate a 3D viewer with AR capability in your product pages.
3. Focus on content marketing
IKEA’s content marketing strategy optimizes posts for different social channels. For instance, the company reshares blogs showcasing its community efforts via X (formerly Twitter), while focusing on home décor images on Instagram and boards on Pinterest.
Regional IKEA accounts share posts of their discounts or reshare posts made by their customers. In simple terms, IKEA only posts content optimized for specific social platforms.
That said, a key element of the overall IKEA marketing strategy is to ensure its strong branding is consistent and stands out in every form. Furthermore, the company tries to ensure the content is relatable and personable. The overall effect is to create a distinct but recognizable brand identity that drives awareness and, ultimately, conversions.
How can you implement it? To use different social media channels effectively, you need to:
- Ensure the medium and the message are aligned – for example ensuring visual formats are used on platforms like Instagram and Pinterest.
- Understand the audiences on each platform, and what content they expect to consume there – whether its design inspiration, new product information, promotions, etc.
- Engage with the community that you’re investing in reaching, posting regularly and promptly replying to comments, questions or complaints.
4. Utilize storytelling
IKEA’s marketing strategy uses interactive storytelling to drive its online shopping experience, with its 2019 campaign “What’s Incredible is the Price” a prime example.
The furniture giant created a unique ad campaign incorporating footage from IKEA stores. Thanks to YouTube shopping, customers could view the product catalog and discount offers. They could also click on products to make purchases directly.
The interactive ad format brought the in-store experience home, boosting engagement, visits, and conversion. The campaign achieved a 33% ad recall and a 33% view rate, with a return on ad spend (ROAS) of 460%.
How can you implement it? Interactive storytelling may be at the advanced end of marketing approaches, but the fundamentals are achievable for any brand:
- Social media provides a broad and accessible platform for businesses to tell their stories.
- The goal should be to define and communicate key brand values, messages, and differentiation in an authentic way.
- Messaging should be designed to drive engagement and foster increased consideration, boost online traffic and, ultimately, conversions.
5. Leverage search engine optimization
A prominent focus of the IKEA marketing strategy is optimizing its product pages according to the latest SEO guidelines. This helps to ensure maximum visibility on search engine results pages. The firm also uses product-specific keywords that align with buyer intent, again helping to enhance its rankings.
Research shows that most users don’t click past Google’s first page of results, underlining the importance of ranking on page one. As such, ensuring its products appear in those key ranking positions contributes to its success in attracting more online visitors than its competitors.
How can you implement it? A wealth of online sites, such as Semrush, Moz and many more, offer both tools and practical guidance to develop and implement an effective SEO strategy. In addition, AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT and Claude can help optimize product content according to the latest SEO guidelines.
6. Embrace omnichannel selling
IKEA’s marketing strategy ensures a cohesive in-store and online experience. An early innovator in this space, the company introduced its click and collect service as early as 2015. By enabling buyers to order online and collect from their closest IKEA store, customers could benefit from a seamless transition from online to offline and a more convenient buying journey.
“We want Ikea to be either 30 minutes or one click away.”
- Bhavana Jaiswal, Head of Ecommerce, Ikea India
At the heart of an omnichannel approach is ensuring a consistent and seamless experience across online and offline touchpoints. Some of the key elements of IKEA’s strategy in this area include:
- QR codes in-store linking to online content
- Optimized mobile browsing
- Interactive digital experiences with 3D and AR
- Convenient collection points beyond stores
- Localized digital experiences
- Region-specific promotional content
- Shoppable social media integration
- 3D room-planning tools and virtual showroom technology
How can you implement it? Developing an omnichannel approach starts with integrating physical and digital platforms. That means:
- Investing in the digital experience and deploying high quality visuals
- Optimizing for mobile display
- Offering core functions like click and collect.
- Mapping out the customer’s online journey to understand where shoppers spend their time.
- Using those insights to understand how best to integrate those channels.
7. Invest in Google search ads
Another facet of the IKEA marketing strategy is an investment in Google search ads in the UK. First, the company segmented its customer accounts into categories based on their device preferences, before allocating budgets to each. It also used revenue records to categorize its products based on sales, then created adaptive shopping campaigns by grouping products with similar returns.
This approach allowed IKEA to market newer products and rearrange budgets, while also making retargeting easier. Thanks to these efforts, IKEA increased sales by 117% and achieved a ROAS of 68%.
How can you implement it? While most companies can’t match the IKEA marketing budget, the firm’s approach demonstrates that optimizing your digital marketing strategy can pay for itself. Refine your approach by testing, iterating, and consulting with sector experts.
Tailoring the IKEA marketing strategy for your furniture business
The company’s scale and resources mean not every element of the IKEA marketing strategy will be viable for every business. However, there are useful lessons to be learned and which many furniture businesses have already brought to their own operations.
Key components of the IKEA marketing strategy such as digital optimization, click and collect policies, and flexible payment methods are commonplace. Brands including Wayfair, Kave Home, DFS and many more use 3D and AR to offer live product customization and visualization. Companies large and small have a social media presence and websites optimized for mobile browsing. Customer habits and expectations have changed significantly in recent years, accelerated by the pandemic. Meanwhile evolving technology has presented new opportunities and brought innovations within reach of all budget sizes. As such, furniture businesses have to be able to adapt.
The success of the IKEA marketing strategy in driving online conversions showcases the power of strategic, customer-focused marketing. By prioritizing relationship-building, interactive digital experiences, and a strong omnichannel presence, IKEA creates a seamless and engaging customer journey. For businesses aiming to replicate IKEA’s success, adopting these strategies—tailored to your resources and audience—can make a tangible impact. Whether it’s investing in content marketing, leveraging the latest tech, or refining SEO practices, the potential for boosting conversions is significant. Start small, focus on delivering value, and see how simple changes can lead to big gains.
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