Study claims Ikea's 'maze' is selling ploy

Published on Saturday 22 January 2011 14:39

IKEA has pioneered an ingenious architectural strategy intended to encourage customers to buy as much flat-packed furniture as possible, according to research by a leading urban design expert.

Professor Alan Penn, director of the Virtual Reality Centre for the Built Environment at University College London, studied the Swedish firm's north London store and came to the conclusion that their success, in part, is down to confusing their customers into submission by designing their stores like a maze.

Unlike John Lewis stores, which have a grid layout to create an open and accessible environment, Ikea stores require customers to enter and follow a path through the entire store to reach the exit.

"It is so well done and so cunningly done that I have little doubt that it is intentional," said Penn, whose team has previously studied retail strategies and monitored how consumers respond.

In his study of the Ikea store in Brent, Penn found that the weaving yellow path quickly leaves customers disorientated. It only takes minutes before they have no idea where the exit lies, he found.

Although all stores are required to include shortcuts for fire regulations, he said these were always positioned outside the customer's normal field of vision.

Penn said the only comparable shopping environment he knew of was the Bazaar in Isfahan, a medieval Iranian marketplace. "The way to the exit is always behind you," he said.

Unlike other stores, Ikea parades customers past everything on offer, which he described as "more S&M than M&S".

Penn's findings correlate with a survey of shoppers' testimonies by retail expert and presenter Mary Portas, which ranked Ikea 69th, below Poundland.

"I only came in for one item and was forced to traipse round the store for miles because you can only go one way and can't double back, even to get to the checkout," said one disgruntled customer.

Ikea denied that its store layouts have been designed to intentionally confuse its customers.

Carole Reddish, Ikea's deputy managing director for UK and Ireland, said: "Our furniture showrooms are designed to give our customers lots of ideas for every area of the home, including your kitchen, bedroom and living room.

"While some of our customers come to us for a day out to get inspiration for every room, we appreciate that others may have looked at the Ikea catalogue or online offer, have a specific shopping list in mind and would like to get in and out quickly.

"So to make it easier for those customers, we have created shortcuts."