When IKEA decided to sell food, it chose to do it in much the same way as it sells furniture, a few standardized staples, sold in large quantities. In 2013, IKEA sold 150 million Swedish meatballs worldwide. In this way, IKEA should continue to serve foods that are easy on the wallet as it entice shoppers to fill their stomach before browsing the company's shelves.
In addition, IKEAs are huge, and visitors can get fatigued after walking for hours. Hence the restaurant plays an important roles as it acts as a one stop food and beverage station. On top of this, IKEA should stick to its old way of having five dishes on its menu. This is because having too much dishes on the menu means that staff will have insufficient time to prepare and serve these foods.
In recent years, there is also a surge in coffee shops in Europe. Andy Harrison, Chief executive of Whitbread said that, "Families and women in particular use coffee shops for social gatherings. Also, women now have greater spending power than in the past." Hence our team feels that IKEA should consider the setting up a coffee cafe apart from its usual restaurant. This is because having such coffee cafe would entice users to stay longer in IKEA and this may increase the likelihood of them buying IKEA's products.
Source:
Jens Hansegard. (2013). IKEA’s Path to Selling 150 Million Meatballs.
Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304864504579139540481712888
Nathalie Thomas. (2014). Why coffee shops are replacing pubs in Britain
Expansion of IKEA's Restaurant
IKEA is more than a furniture store. Additional facilities such as the children play area is considered as a complement to its existing core business of selling furnitures. These complementary facilities are extremely appealing to married couples because they can leave their kids under the care of IKEA staff as they play in free play zone, while parents on the other hand can shop freely within the premises to view or purchase new products.
However our team feels that IKEA should consider external facilities to be set up by external companies within its store. One additional facility can be ice skating round.
More Facilities for Families
Source:
Inter IKEA Systems. Family Friend Store. Retrieved from http://www.ikea.com/sg/en/store/alexandra/kidspage
Invest in Budget Hotels
IKEA can exploit its ecosystem of suppliers to secure cheap and good quality furnitures. In conjunction to this, IKEA can also work closely with budget hotels in supplying them these furnitures. One thing to take note, IKEA should should not use IKEA branded products inside these budget hotels as it will cheapen its
branding.
