Deepening Customer Engagement with IKEA Retail

Inspired to create a better everyday life for the many people, IKEA Retail (Ingka Group) brings the IKEA brand to millions globally. IKEA has long instilled trust with customers for providing affordable, innovative furnishings worldwide. With 170+ million members, if IKEA’s iconic customer club, IKEA Family, was a country it would be the eighth largest in the world by population. IKEA came to frog to craft a revitalized membership experience that actively engages its members through rewards and utilizes its vast home furnishing expertise.

frog collaborated with IKEA digital and market support stakeholders to design and build the technical solution, help shape core operational components and ultimately to create a more rewarding experience throughout the project journey. Our teams launched customer trials in Sweden and Spain, before establishing a full pilot in Portugal. The result is reward keys from IKEA Family: a proposition and global rewards framework which operates as a consistent way of recognizing customer loyalty, whilst offering local countries flexibility to adjust the ways customers can collect reward keys, as well as the rewards they can access.

The extensive research and customer testing conducted by frog led us to build a proposition on the premise that the home is never done. Reward keys from IKEA Family focuses on helping customers bring their home furnishing dreams to life, no matter the size of their wallet or the scale of their ambitions. Whether it’s a large renovation or a seasonal refresh, there are always ways in which people can create a better life at home. The home is one of the biggest investments that people have—financially and emotionally—and improving it is a continuous goal, yet many people lack the tools and/or the confidence to realize their home furnishing vision.

frog identified that the opportunity lay in helping people with these home transformations and in supporting the customer’s home furnishing journeys to turn their dreams into reality. IKEA are now able to reward customers for getting help and advice using IKEA’s various planning and design tools and services, as well as for the purchases they make. Through this collaboration, IKEA Family transformed from a transactional-based to an engagement-driven membership system, further strengthening its brand image.

IKEA Family customers collect reward keys (inspired by the Allen key made famous by IKEA’s flatpack concept) which they can use to unlock a variety of helpful rewards. Customers can collect reward keys by making online or in-store purchases, attending events, booking planning sessions, saving wish lists, or simply logging into their account. As their collection grows, the reward keys unlock helpful rewards designed to bring ideas to life. Ranging from design advice to product discounts, delivery and assembly services, to a free meal in the IKEA restaurant, reward keys from IKEA Family is intended to give members the help they need to bring their dreams at home to life.

Unlike most high street reward schemes, reward keys help the many by giving members reward keys for their engagement as well as spend. It recognises customers for their loyalty and strengthens their relationship with IKEA, even if they never make a purchase, ultimately promoting long-term customer lifetime value. With this proposition, IKEA has unlimited potential to really drive value home for consumers all over the world.