IKEA Thrifter
Reusable products’ online marketplace
OBJECTIVE
Sweden is one of the proactive countries aiming for zero waste. This means stepping up from recycling to reusing. IKEA is a statement company of the Swedish market which in recent years focused mostly on transforming into a circular business 1 . They were committed to becoming a circular economy and empowering their customers to live a more sustainable life. One of the key enablers to prolonging the life of products is the possibility to repair, upgrade and adapt through different life stages. This project aims to give second chance to used IKEA products, where buyers provide these products a welcoming home and through that making a sustainable choice. In conducting the case study, a user centric approach was adopted to perceive the right solution by creating a harmonious product. Also a lot of the project effort was spent to understand the user needs and behavior which motivates them to shop for reusable products. Focus here was to understand the journey about second-hand (reusable) goods with the objective to create more engagement in the second-hand consumer market.
Background
“Waste of resources is a mortal sin at IKEA.” — Ingvar Kamprad This famous quote was made by one of the pioneers in the furniture industry who industrialized the furniture world. This statement is as true in this century as it was in the last one. Resources are limited and the capabilities to use them are also limited. If we don’t balance the harmony of resources, the environmental balance will also be catastrophically impacted. One of the disastrous outcome is Global warming. The planet is warming, from the North Pole to the South Pole. The global average surface temperature has risen by more than 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since 1906 and the impacts are more in sensitive polar regions. Deforestation contributes up to 10% of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity, according to 2013 figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Forests, which plays a significant role in our planet’s biodiversity, continue to deplete at alarming rates. The primary area of forests worldwide has decreased by over 80 million hectares since 1990.
The strain on the Swedish forests could be assessed by the commercial demands it fulfills. Despite making up less than one percent of the planet’s covered forested land, Sweden is the world’s second-biggest exporter of pulp, paper and sawn wood products. Around 47 percent goes to sawmills, 45 percent to the pulp industry in the form of pulpwood, and 8 percent becomes firewood, poles etc. These raw products are used in different industries. However, importantly housing and furniture are the prime customers for products.
Furniture prices have dropped considerably in the last two decades because of cheaper materials, economies of scale, and low wages earned by workers abroad (mostly South Asia). According to experts in the furniture industry, overproduction is the most obvious way that companies create waste. On top of that when Chinese companies began manufacturing furniture for global consumption, they changed the face of the furniture industry in the mind of the consumer. After a furniture life cycle most of them land in landfills. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the amount of furniture and furnishings taken to a landfill rose from 7.6 million tons in 2005 to 9.69 million tons in 2015, and has drastically increased to 12 million tons by 2020. As a result, more than 9 million tons of wood, metal, glass, fabric, leather, and foam waste ends up in a landfill.
To control the amount of waste generated by various industries, the European Union legislations establish a waste hierarchy, a set of waste management priorities ranking potential disposal choices in terms of sustainability. However nowadays more and more companies are forced to focus on sustainable products and circular economy plans.
This project identifies and proposes ways IKEA can support a circular economy by using a digital platform for selling second-hand products. IKEA, as one of the biggest furniture companies in the world, makes it interesting to have a look into their practices to gain a deeper insight by looking at how they work in a more sustainable and environmentally friendlier world. Their ambition is to be a circular business by 2030. Therefore, they are committed to design all of their products with circular capabilities. It means more renewable or recycled materials and to provide creative solutions for customers to prolong the life of products and materials.
How is IKEA taking initiative in the circular economy? In one of inspired version of loppis (flea market) culture, it has opened the world’s first second-hand shop for furniture and home furnishings at ReTuna Återbruksgalleria in Eskilstuna. However this is one and only store in Sweden and you can’t buy items online unless or until you live nearby. If the concept is already developed it might be worth extending it to a larger market via digital channels
Project timeline
For this project the Design thinking method 16 to go non- linear approach was applied. It’s well known that this iterative process is used to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. In the process different stages were rigorously followed while evaluating the designs on each stage.
Overview
IKEA aiming to use sustainable and reusable products by 2030. This means using more renewable and recycled materials, striving to eliminate waste in our operations and changing the way we design products.
Welcome to the world’s first second-hand shop for furniture and home furnishings from IKEA at ReTuna Återbruksgalleria in Eskilstuna.
Problem
Opportunities
All the ground research began with the basis of some hypothesis of which four hypotheses relevant to all the background findings of the project are formulated here. For each hypothesis a research method was planned to explore and dig deep into the process of defining a problem.
Desk research
Desk research was conducted about the statistics on second-hand purchased products in Sweden in 2017.
The desk research also indicated that by 2030 the resale market will be twice as big as the fast fashion market, based on the second edition “TOP 100 Cross-Border Sustainable Marketplaces Europe ‘’. Another report suggested that the sustainable goods market was increasing in the fashion sector and other areas too around Europe. One of the market fashion leaders in Sweden, H&M is also widely focused on reusable textiles.
Looking for existing second-hand product selling companies. These companies are mainly based around Sweden and some of them exist for a longer time period. They are operating digitally and physically and people buy products from there.
Conclusion: This desk research suggests that there is a market for second-hand products in Sweden. If second-hand products or reusable products are sold, people will care to buy those products.
Quantitative method
The next phase of research was to go divergent thinking and broaden the scope to find survey participants. Project related questionnaire was created for a quantitative survey on Google Forms and shared on different social media platforms.
Key findings from the Survey:
● Users buy reusable/second-hand product : Always/ 56% Often / Seldom/ Never
● Users buy product categories: Fashion/Furniture/Household/48% Baby products/Other
● Users find second-hand products: Physical boutique/ Online/ 72% Social media
● Users buy second-hand product because of : Sustainability/63% Economy/Use before buy new/no reason
● Users most influence by decision to buy products: Product review/73% Discount/Original price/86% Product condition/ 66% Brand Name/Sustainability
● Where they buy second-hand products: Price comparison site/ 64% Social media/Real life store/Retailer website
Conclusion: This survey revealed interesting insights into people’s habits to shop secondhand products. Reusable baby products (eg. clothing, toys, car seats, cribs) are more likely to be purchased online. These products are purchased mostly on social media however
The next part of research was to converge on the findings. This part of research was more focused on behavior of users who shop second-hand products often. These five participants were handpicked from the survey who were willing for in-person interviews. Summarized below are their motivation to purchase second-hand products.
Cognitive Interview: In order to get a more realistic view of people’s decision-making behavior regarding second-hand purchases, this final leap of research turned convergent and focused on one participant from the Quantitative survey who talked through her real life experience and showed the key insights. This participant almost shopped all the products second-hand and was an experienced thrifter.
Research Conclusion: In research the process started more divergent before slowly converging into viable alternatives. These methods provided concrete basis to prove the hypotheses and lead to the next phase of defining level. There is hence a target group which likes to buy second-hand products and leave a better carbon footprint.
Define Problem/Solution
The first step of the process was to collate all the findings and identify a pattern within. Writing down all the key findings to create any solution which reaches the user but also benefits IKEA in the longer run. A mind map which helps create a pattern that leads to the right solution.
Later inspiring the solution via mind mapping and writing all the inputs to SCAMPER framework. Scamper technique was mostly used in the existing product to enhance the services, whereas in this project the new service was an extension of IKEA existing service therefore using this method would create a holistic solution framework.
The next level of defining the process included creating a persona and customer journey for defining target group and emotional journey.
Ideation
The solution would be to create a thrifting digital platform for IKEA, a thrifting mobile app, that reflected the essence of IKEA branding and would work as a platform for reusable / second-hand products from IKEA. The platform also provided additional services like repair of old goods, transportation, sustainability metrics and maintaining the quality of service. A site map for the application which painted a clearer picture of the navigational hierarchy. It also helped to organize content into sections.
Assimilating all the above information, sketching low fidelity wireframes is the next lag of process. Here the focus is on user flows and creating something to begin with.
The app’s goal is to simplify the reusable/second-hand products buying process and inspire people to thrift more. A clean and minimal design, full-screen images, and simple, easy-to-read fonts greet the customers. IKEA style-guide is basic and minimalistic, using the same design features with a new interface and a fresher approach for users. They are already familiar with IKEA apps therefore it wouldn’t be difficult to hand on similar tech with this one.
High Fidelity Prototype
Some of the key features added to the HI-fi prototype to make IKEA thrifter stand out from the existing IKEA app
Usability testing
Far most usability tests in the design thinking are the last step however design thinking is an iterative process where a usability test provides a stepping stone to start the iteration process again. Due to shortage of time, this test was conducted with only one user for analysis of the quality of the prototype to identify usability barriers when interacting with the “ IKEA” mobile application.
Discussion and conclusion
Key Takeaways :
IKEA is a well established brand that is already providing well-designed, reasonably priced products to people. While they are successful as a brand it needs to make a mark in the circular economy in the upcoming future therefore IKEA must address the reusability of existing products in the current market. This project may not address all the important pain points of the consumer market but puts human centric factors on the forefront of all the design processes. This project blends the existing physical supply chain to newly created digital applications without adding the new resource utilizing the existing one.
Working on the Thrifter application was really interesting as well as contemplative. Most of the research conducted to absorb the domain knowledge proved to be valuable. This research leads to a relatable User Experience for online consumers. Helping to create an innovative, seamless, and intuitive digital experience and presence of a brand will set it apart from being good to great.
My Takeaways with project :
Starting this project was a little stressful as the point of beginning was not defined. The subject was rather broad and tools of information not defined. The best learning is “ Just start and don’t be frightened to fail”. One will be amazed that there is a lot to learn in the process. The end results needed more time to test via different iterative processes which couldn’t be extensively conducted due to shortage of time. The outcome, though satisfactory, provided the time and resources available, could be built upon if needed.
