13-6-2023 (LONDON) IKEA, the renowned Swedish furniture retailer, is taking steps to enhance its home improvement services by training call centre workers to become interior design advisers. This move comes as IKEA aims to shift routine customer inquiries to an artificial intelligence (AI) bot named Billie.
In April, IKEA expanded its interior design services to the United Kingdom and United States, following successful launches in various parts of Europe, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and other locations. In the UK, customers can avail a 45 to 60 minute interior design advice video call and receive a suggested product list for a fee of £25 (US$31.44). Additionally, they have the option to pay £125 for three workspace design consultations, a floorplan, and 3D visuals.
Since 2021, Ingka, IKEA’s parent company, has trained 8,500 call centre workers to become interior design advisers. Meanwhile, Billie, introduced in the same year and named after IKEA’s Billy bookcase range, has successfully handled 47 percent of customer queries to call centres over the past two years.
Ulrika Biesert, Global People and Culture Manager at Ingka Group, stated, “We’re committed to strengthening co-workers’ employability in Ingka, through lifelong learning and development and reskilling, and to accelerate the creation of new jobs.” When asked about the potential impact of increased AI usage on the company’s workforce, Biesert stated that there are no signs of headcount reduction at present.
In Ingka’s 2022 financial year, sales of products and services through their remote interior design channel, conducted via phone or video, generated €1.3 billion (US$1.40 billion) in revenue, accounting for 3.3 percent of the total. Ingka Group aims to grow this share to 10 percent by 2028 as part of its strategy to appeal to future Gen Z customers.
In comparison, online sales of products through IKEA’s website, owned by Ingka, amounted to approximately €9.9 billion, constituting 25 percent of total sales in Ingka’s financial year ending August 31, 2022.
This investment in digital services aligns with IKEA’s €2 billion expansion plan in the United States. It reflects a similar approach taken by competitor Wayfair, which recently introduced a “Digital Design Studio” – an in-store kiosk enabling shoppers to experiment with furniture styles and room layouts using digital renderings.
Jocelyn Paulley, a technology lawyer and co-head of the retail sector team at Gowling WLG in London, commented, “It’s not surprising that IKEA is now focusing on virtual sales channels – if anything, the surprise is that it’s later than it could have been.” She emphasized that these virtual services require substantial investment to ensure accurate representation of items’ colours, textures, and sizes, while also minimizing returns.
