Ikea service even better overseas
By Carole Sloan -- Furniture Today, September 9, 2001
For a store fetishist like myself, travel is a fantastic experience. Last week, I visited two European stores of global retailers. It's fun seeing the similarities and differences with their U.S. operations. One was Ikea, the other The Conran Shop, known in this country as The Terence Conran Shop. More on the latter in another column.
All Ikea stores essentially are alike. We all know about the legendary kids playpen and playroom. But in the store I visited in a suburb of Paris, the kids were much more involved in shopping with mom and dad than in the United States. They sat, slouched, curled up and screamed at the things they liked and abhored.
The staff at this Ikea was either immune to the clamor or understood that happy kids make for bigger sales. Watching them work from the basics like bedding and beds to more complex add-ons — home textiles, rugs and accessories — was an amazing experience, not seen as intensively in U.S. stores.
Outside the kids arena, this store again moved beyond conventional retailing. It offered an array of special prices for Ikea members vs. the shopper who walked in the store. In most cases, the difference was 20% or more, and comparisons were clearly displayed on a takeaway sheet. Customers shopped with these sheets in hand, proving their importance.
Ikea, long a proponent of information that customers can use while shopping, had a plethora of product information sheets, from upholstery to home office, giving a bunch of schematics and how-tos to help customers make selections. The staff was very service-oriented.
Maybe it's something in the atmosphere or the water, but as good as the U.S. Ikea stores are in service, there's a chasm between them and their offshore brethren.
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