IKEA engages new audiences with a virtual showroom experience

Engaging customers beyond physical showrooms

IKEA Italy, renowned for its innovative approach to home furnishings, faced a significant challenge in engaging and guiding customers through its vast product catalog beyond its showrooms. With no physical inventory available, the need for a solution that could seamlessly bridge the gap between digital and physical experiences became increasingly urgent, particularly with the opening of the new order point in Bolzano.

The company sought a virtual showroom that would offer customers an intuitive, interactive way to explore products digitally while maintaining the high-quality experience they expect from the brand.
Beyond customer engagement, the solution also had to be easy for staff to manage, enabling real-time monitoring and personalization without the burden of complex technology. And that’s where Immersiva came in.

Creating and managing engaging experiences with ease and speed

By utilizing Immersiva, IKEA Italy was able to obtain a seamless and highly engaging virtual showroom experience in no time.
While Ikon Digital Farm was responsible for creating the virtual environment, it was Immersiva that provided the foundation, allowing the experience to be built with speed and simplicity.

The Digital Asset Management module was pivotal in achieving this result, as it streamlined the management of all IKEA Italy’s digital resources. From product photos to 360° videos, detailed product sheets, and immersive content captured with drones and 360 cameras - this powerful tool has made digital content management efficient and quick, allowing IKEA's team to effortlessly access, organize, and deploy new product updates and ensure that the virtual showroom remains visually rich and up-to-date.

Building the virtual showroom was straightforward thanks to Immersiva’s no-code editor , which eliminates the need for complex coding.Through intuitive drag-and-drop functionality, the staff could integrate 360° visuals, interactive hotspots, and videos, recreating the iconic IKEA showroom experience with remarkable ease.
The user-friendly design and flexibility of Immersiva allow for rapid iteration and refinement, ensuring the virtual environment reflects the latest design trends and product offerings.

Navigating the digital showroom: real-time guidance for personalized shopping

Aiming to deliver a truly personalized on-site experience IKEA Italy leveraged Immersiva’s real-time guidance features to empower its staff. Store associates can monitor what customers are viewing in the virtual showroom in real-time via tablets, allowing them to guide users to products that best suit their needs, mirroring the attentive service of a physical store while adding the convenience of digital interaction.
Additionally, the platform provides real-time data and insights on the technical performance of the showroom. IKEA’s team can monitor hardware status, troubleshoot issues in real time, and ensure a smooth customer experience, free of interruptions.

Boosting conversion rates with advanced customer profiling and marketing automation

IKEA Italy's virtual showroom experience extends beyond visualization by incorporating advanced customer profiling and marketing automation.
Before starting the experience customers are profiled, by gathering essential information such as name, email and contact information.
The initial profiling is then complemented by detailed tracking of customer behavior throughout their visit, providing invaluable insights into product preferences and engagement levels.
This wealth of data not only enhances the immediate customer experience but also fuels IKEA's marketing efforts. Thanks to marketing automation capabilities, the sales and marketing teams send automated follow-up emails featuring links to the products customers engaged with during their virtual visit, fostering long-term engagement and driving sales conversions.

A future-ready showroom experience

By adopting Immersiva, IKEA Italia redefined how customers engage with its products in a virtual space, offering an experience that felt as immersive and intuitive as an in-store visit.
The platform’s ease of use allowed IKEA staff to manage and personalize the experience effortlessly, while real-time monitoring ensured both customer satisfaction and operational excellence. This innovative approach not only strengthened customer engagement but also showcased IKEA’s commitment to leading the future of retail by seamlessly blending digital and physical worlds.