There's nothing worse than fighting traffic, then the parking lot, wandering through the maze (even if you know the short cuts) just to discover the item you made a specific trip to IKEA for is out of stock. We complained and IKEA heard our pleas and made a few small tweaks to their website that are bound to make a difference in your quick trips to the store...
This new to us feature allows you to check the instore stocks for items you'll be shopping for, before leaving home. Their system will tell you in real time, how many pieces of a certain item they have on hand and if they are out, when they are expecting a new delivery of them.
This could come in quite handy if you're purchasing several bookcases or lighting pieces at once, or even if you need multiple chair or table tops!
The website will also tell you where each pieces is stored once you get to the open racking at the end of the store, before checkout. No more hunting for the pieces on the showroom floor so you can look to see where they are located, just take a few seconds before leaving home and it's as easy as pie to let their website tell you where they will be located.
For many, this can mean skipping the showroom all together and skipping ahead, armed with location numbers. It should hopefully lessen frustrations and help make your trip a little faster and a little easier.
Obviously you'll want to check the day, if not the hour before you go and we're guessing that weekends might not mean an item will be in stock as promised. With so many people in the mega stores at once, it won't take into account how many people are sitting in the checkout line with the item you need, just the ones who have already purchased it.
Have you tried out their new system yet? Do you think it will help cut back on the time you spend? Leave us a note in the comments below and share your thoughts!
(Image: IKEA)
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Clever, but I imagine it's probably not going to be as awesome as we all hope.
I'll let you know in the next month or so. I have some Ikea trips to make for the new apartment.
Emily
they should allow one to purchase items online then pick them up at the store, either through their own efforts or ikea staff could have your purchases already pulled and waiting, possibly for an extra fee.
I've used this feature successfully several times, saving myself lots of headache and swearing. One time, not so much—it knows if an item's in stock, but NOT if it's in someone's cart.
: )
It would be even better if you added items to your home delivery catalog. Some items could easily be added and wouldn't cost much to sent via mail.
They've had this for a while - at least the last two months. The in-stock counter works pretty well - it's been accurate every time that I've used it. The where-to-shop feature, not so much. Mostly it just says to ask an employee. It probably works OK on large furniture, but I've only bought smaller stuff since I've noticed this capability.
The REAL win for ecommerce would be if you could buy all the in stock items online, pay for it and then go pick it up.
This will save EVERYONE time:
- ecommerce customers just have to pickup, no checkout or playing rat in a maze goosechase for items
- in-store customers get checked out faster as there will be shorter check out lines.
If any senior operations or IT people from IKEA are reading this, contact me as I can put a full team together to implement this for you.
They've had this feature for ages... (except for the bin location, which might be new, though everything I needed, wanted and coveted was NOT AVAILABLE or OUT OF STOCK!)
Yeah, this feature isn't new at all. I do wish, though, that when you make a shopping list, it would show the bin numbers on the side so you could just print and go. Order online and pickup would be even better!
They also don't do this for seasonal items. Those you gotta go in for - at least last month when I tried it (in Canada).
This is a great new feature. Though I personally enjoy walking around the stores. Even if it's usually the same displays as usual. :)
Laura
http://www.justalittlebit.net
I agree with others.. this feature is at least a few years old. And it isn't fool proof. It often says 'in stock' when it's somewhere in the warehouse but not available to customers (palate on a super high shelf). I got very frustrated looking for glass cabinet doors. the system said "in stock", but when I asked a person, the employee computer system said it was not on the floor. A month later, it said it WAS on the floor, but it actually was on a super-high shelf and the employees couldn't get it down at that time. Still took 3 trips to the store... so it's hardly a flawless system.
I was in Ikea a few weeks ago waiting in line to ask about inventory. The guy in line in front of me asked about this feature, and the Ikea sales associate told him don't bother. He said the feature is not properly synced up with the system and that it's out of date or behind what is actually in stock. Not sure how accurate his response is, but I would not really trust it for popular items.
I can imagine that the inventory would not be quite accurate but it might be nice if the locator worked (or could be improved since I read a few responses said it didn't) because it is hard when you find a bunch of cute things online, mostly small things, but when you go to find it in the store their show rooms are so blended it might be hard to catch. It does often feel like a scavenger hunt when you have to look through the show room to find a specific thing.
This feature has been in there for a while now, and it does get updated quickly. I bought some items then checked the website when I got home. And sure enough, the inventory was updated to reflect that the item has been purchased.
I've seen this feature for awhile now and one thing to remember is that it doesn't account for anything on display in the store. So if it says they have 4 LACK side table in stock, but 4 LACK side tables are being used in the showroom, you are indeed, out of luck.
And yes, I'm speaking from personal experience.
If they show more than a dozen of a particular item, I would feel better about it actually being there.
My store has it and so far it has always been wildly INaccurate. I never believe what it says. More often than not, it says the item is out of stock but then we go to the store and there are plenty of them.
I've also called the store to ask about stock and usually get "we don't have any left", which is frustrating because I'm pretty sure they're using the same system. I once asked the person if she was dead sure they had none left and explained that the information was often wrong, and she got testy and said yes, she was dead sure.
Fortunately, I live close enough to the store that it's not a huge deal to go look in person.
Rats, I was excited for some new IKEA news! (they've had this for ages)
I used this in Belfast (Northern Ireland) last year and it was great, but not foolproof. An assistant told me that once the item count falls below 3 it's unreliable, the item could be gone. (Or maybe it's being used on display, as another poster mentioned)
Also, the aisle and rack number listing so you can plan your route around the warehouse is a total sanity saver. Except some of the aisle/rack listings turned out to be wrong on the day, so it's not foolproof.
i have been using this (in Germany) for quite some time now, and so far it was always accurate.
I've used this for years.
What's annoying is when they take items off the website that you KNOW they still have some left of in the store. So if you got a great deal on some discontinued item and want to go back for more, you can't see if there are any left. Bah!
ha this is bullshit the website is not correct .. there is a better way .. call the ikea store nearest u ...wait for like 10 mins before u get someone to help u .... ask them the item u r looking for and theeir availibility ...i find this one more accurate
this wasnt helpful for us... we needed curtains for our new house and wanted to go with the grommet top white ones... we needed a ton of packs and according to the site they had a lot of stock- not so when we got to the store after the LONG drive.
luckily it wasnt a total loss-we scored an awesome wood outdoor table for $55, and a few other things we were looking for.
im sure it works for most things, but those curtains are popular and with the stock fluctuating so much on the weekends im not surprised it was wrong.
as someone said above, "in stock" doesn't mean available to purchase. if your item is up in the rafters, you're SOL until the store is empty after closing and the employees pull the items down. ikea will ask you to come back then, which, for us, would have been about 8 hours later. (we didn't.)
Now if I could know what was in the clearance section ahead of time that would be mindblowing!
Darn, I was hoping this was something new, like being able to call ahead or order online and then pick up your furniture...if only they would do that.
I've used this feature the past 4 visits to Ikea. On one visit I was able to get in and out of the store with 3 beds, 5 chairs, 1 table, 4 dressers, a sofa bed and bed chair (lycksele) in less than hour, it was awesome. Sometimes you like to wander about but when you are pressed for time and need to furnish a place quickly (like we did), this is great. Sadly, 2 of the items I wanted were not where they were supposed to be, and even the people in store couldn't find them.
Honestly, why isn't every single retail store able to do something like this?
And more honestly...why can't we just shop on line for what we want at IKEA...its always a trek and a half to get near one...
This system is different that the older one. The old one gave the count based on what the store had in the beginning of the day, not in real time.
The reason IKEA doesn't offer in store pick up is that the founder believes very strongly that a trip to IKEA should be like an outing and that the store is a destination.
What they could do that would be really helpful would be to have realistic mail order/delivery charges. But no, they want Ikea to be a destination. I love going there and eating meatballs as much as the next guy but up here where I live the only way to get to Ikea is if you have a car.