In April, IKEA expanded its home furnishing services to the United Kingdom and the United States, after previously launching it in parts of Europe, Australia, the UAE and elsewhere. In the UK, clients pay £25 ($31.44) for a 45- to 60-minute interior design consultancy video call and suggested product list, and £125 for three workspace design consultations, floor plans and 3D renderings.
The Ingka Group of Companies, which operates 367 IKEA stores, said it has trained 8,500 call center workers to become interior design consultants since 2021, while Billie – launched the same year and whose name is inspired by IKEA’s Billy bookstore chain – has Has been trained in the last two years and has handled 47% of customer inquiries to the call center.
Asked if the increased use of artificial intelligence is expected to downsize the company, Pessert said, “We don’t see that right now.”
In Ingka’s 2022 fiscal year, phone or video sales of products and services through Ingka’s remote home improvement channel generated €1.3 billion ($1.40 billion) in revenue, representing 3.3% of total revenue. Ingka Group told Reuters that it plans to increase that percentage to 10% by 2028 as part of its appeal to future Generation Z customers.
Online product sales through Ingka’s IKEA website amounted to around €9.9 billion, accounting for 25% of total sales in Ingka’s fiscal year ending August 31, 2022.
Cover photo: Shutterstock
