The Age Of Experience: A Qualitative Study of the Revitalisation of the Customer’s Physical Retail Experience based on the Example of IKEA

The entire retail industry is facing drastic changes at the moment: topics such as personalisation and omni-channel are on each management agenda. Additionally, new retail store concepts are continually popping up, and the changing role of store associates causes concerns. In particular, physical retailers are struggling on how to reinvent the physical store by changing the store’s main purpose. The younger customer segment who represents the target group of this thesis is characterised by a high level of tech-savviness and knowledge due to the abundant digital pools of information nowadays, and hence, heralded the ‘Age of Experience’. Additionally, they expect retailers to meet their needs and expectations in a whole new way by offering uniquely new store solutions and concepts. So far, researchers and practitioners are discordant on how to create these unique experiences in-store for the customer. Therefore, the following research question occurred: How to re-vitalise IKEA’s in-store customer experience by redefining the main purpose of the physical store environment? Hence, this study is of theoretical as well as of practical relevance and the findings of this thesis, therefore, aim to minimise the knowledge gaps in both disciplines. A qualitative research study has been conducted in order to answer the research question adequately. The empirical material has been collected by conducting interviews with IKEA managers as the first step. Secondly, focus groups which consisted of international participants have been scheduled in order to get the customer’s perspective regarding their expectations towards physical retailers when shopping in physical stores. Thirdly, observations at IKEA stores helped to prove or disprove the attitude-behaviour gap that might have existed between the statements of the focus group participants and the actual behaviour of customers in the real store. The following analysis of the obtained empirical material aimed to localise a match and/or mismatch between the retailer’s offers and the customer’s expectations towards the retailer. The analysis supported the fact that customers are mainly driven by hedonic factors and are profoundly influenced by their ‘social ecosystem’. Furthermore, the findings indicated that customers are extremely focused on time-saving and convenience issues, and most importantly, they use the physical IKEA store as a source of inspiration. In particular, the touch-and-feel factor of physical stores is still highly valued by the younger customers. Based on these insights, we defined recommendations that are tailored to retailers such as IKEA and these recommendations pictured the customer’s level of expectation. Hence, suggestions such as sleepover nights at IKEA stores, Design Workshops or Socialising Zones within the store have been defined. Furthermore, additional recommendations have been presented which aim to improve the customer experience overall