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There's Plenty In Store At Ikea In Orlando
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Published: November 8, 2007
ORLANDO - There's a reason shoppers get a map as they enter Florida's newest Ikea. Otherwise they might not find their way out.
It takes hours to wind through the elaborate showroom and overstocked marketplace. In fact, a trek through this Ikea and every one around the world nearly always starts with a walk up a set of stairs.
"They got you kind of trapped once you get upstairs," said Rich Fenker, a retail design expert and Global Market Architect for Experian Business Strategies. "It guides you through the venues they want you to see. It gives them a much better chance to sell you something."
Ikea is a master of designing stores that entertain and seduce shoppers. The Scandinavian household and furniture retailer also knows how to drive customer loyalty that borders on obsession. On Monday, people will begin camping out at the 309,000-square-foot showroom, waiting for Wednesday's opening.
Don't Plan A Quick Visit
The enormity of Ikea Orlando, and a 353,000-square-foot Tampa location to open in 2009, bring to a new level the concept of shopping as entertainment. Like Disney World, visitors really do rely on maps and a slew of signs to find their way out.
"It's partly to make it easy for consumers to find things, but it's also to encourage them to stay longer," said Judy Harris, a Towson University assistant professor of marketing. "It's designed to be fun, like an amusement park."
Once upstairs in the second-floor showroom, shoppers start to see the vastness of the store. Rows and rows of trendy looking furniture fill the middle of the floor, but shoppers are more inspired by 48 strategically placed, fully decorated room settings.
Imagine cooking in one of 13 different model kitchens. Sit down in one of a dozen living rooms. Stand in the shower of one of three fully outfitted apartments. Nearly each couch, table, sink and spatula include one common element: a large clearly identified price tag.
Going to an Ikea is not a convenient trip to grab a few things. Exits are hard to find, and each floor includes only a few shortcuts to the stairwell or elevators. Most customers will spend three hours in the store, the company said. "You have to get in the Ikea mind-set," spokesman Joseph Roth said. "You can't approach it like you're in another store."
By the time shoppers near the store's exit, they still find it hard to leave. Ikea gives them reason to linger even longer by offering a second food court near the checkout. The first is a bistro on the second floor.
With offerings like that, entertainment venues such as movie theaters are just as much a threat to keep shoppers away from a trip to Ikea as another store.
Strategy Boosts Sales
Last month's grand opening of an Ikea in Sunrise attracted an estimated 25,000 first-day shoppers, many of whom wore special T-shirts or camped out days in advance for the experience. Thousands of shoppers earned prizes, including 100 who received a $89.99 Poang chair.
The ability to attract so many people also explains why Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio was the one to announce the company's plans to build a store near Ybor City. Construction on that store could start next summer.
Ikea's strategy to cluster items in the showroom pays off, said Thom Blischok, retail president of Information Resources Inc. Add a set of plates, wine glasses and table linens to a dining room set, and customers who don't want the hassle of selecting all the accessories can spend 10 to 20 percent more, Blischok said.
"They give me the opportunity to experience other things. Usually, you're schlepping up and down the aisles, and you don't have the opportunity to discover new items."
Using that strategy in such an enormous store takes intentional planning. Shoppers see wine glasses in the showroom, but find a tag letting them know they can find the stemware packaged downstairs, where rows of shopping carts lined up at the bottom of the stairs increases the likelihood of buying.
"Here it's more about grabbing things and putting it in your cart instead of the showroom, where you're more likely to stand back and ponder," Roth said of the marketplace that's filled with thousands of boxes and pallets of kitchen cookware, linens, lamps and artwork.
This approach - aimed at the middle class around the world - is proven. Ikea's North American sales for fiscal 2007 were $2.9 billion. Worldwide sales totaled $4.2 billion.
Roth said Ikea's inventory is so vast it allows them to profit from more than just furniture or accessories. It also transforms the Ikea brand into an image customers want to emulate. "You want to be inspiring enough to result in sales," he said.
Ikea's hip image - and the fact that the company has just 33 stores nationwide - only magnifies its ability to attract shoppers from far away. Tampa shoppers already familiar with Ikea won't blink at driving two hours to shop even it's for a $1.99 souvenir in the checkout line, marketing professor Harris said.
"It may be just a plastic ice tray," she said. "But it's a plastic ice tray you bought at an Ikea."
Reporter Mary Shedden can be reached at mshedden @tampatrib.com or (813)259-7365.
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