discovery

Customer Journey Mapping Both Online and Offline: an IKEA Case Study

15 min read

14 Nov 2019

Customer Journey Mapping Both Online and Offline: an IKEA Case Study Cieden

he other week, one of our clients was talking about his recent move to a new house and how he was super excited to pay his local IKEA store a visit. Like a true pavlovian response, our mouths started watering as we conjured up mental images of meatballs and lingonberry juice.

But IKEA is known for way more than their friendly priced food. Most people seem to absolutely love the store, but it’s almost paradoxical in how they also lovingly mention their frustration at how much time and money they end up spending on their “IKEA runs”.

This got us thinking about the customer experience in these stores. In a world where we’re told to simplify our digital customer journeys from point A to point B so that everyone can get what they want as quickly as possible, how has IKEA found so much success in their meandering store layouts?

If you haven’t yet seen one of their layouts, take a look at this map.

IKEA's customer journey mapping — *Source: https://m.ikea.com/au/en/stores/tempe/storemap/*

Not your typical point A to point B trip, right? There’s a good reason for that.

A lay of the land

In case you haven’t yet had the pleasure to pay IKEA a visit, let’s try to paint a picture of what the experience looks like, using our imaginary friend (customer persona) named Sally.

Upon entering the store, Sally is greeted by the store staff and provided with a signature blue shopping bag. Then off she goes on her journey.

We’re pretty sure that Sally has one or two things in mind that she needs to buy. However, before actually getting to buy anything, she has to go through multiple showrooms. These showrooms serve as a physical catalog of furniture that can later be picked up. After finding her way through the maze of showrooms, possibly a quick cafe stop (yum, meatballs), and endless buckets of “on-sale” stuff, Sally can finally get to the warehouse section to pick up the furniture she wanted. “Finally!” she thinks…with a big bag full of things she maybe doesn’t actually need in hand. An hour ago she had just wanted a desk.

What happened to Sally is an extremely typical situation for anyone who has ever shopped in IKEA. The store has been intentionally laid out in a way to have Sally see the store in its entirety before she’s able to leave. It exposes Sally to more goods and subsequently more temptations. Just like a kid in a candy store.

So what can we, digital product lovers and founders, learn from IKEA? – Customer journeys matter. Let’s break down why that is.

Customer Journeys 101

Unlike the sales funnel analysis (which we’ve written about in our last walkthrough), customer journey mapping is not linear. Let’s imagine a scenario to illustrate what we mean.

Sally is a well-informed customer. She did a lot of research before going to IKEA, even asking her friends and family for advice. She may have even chosen a specific desk she wanted. But Pete (another hypothetical buyer), on the other hand, is not like that. He just went to IKEA to get a desk and grabbed the first one he saw.

In terms of funnel analysis, Pete and Sally arrive at the IKEA store at a similar point in their readiness to buy something. However, customer journey mapping digs deeper into the intricacies of the buyers’ behavior within the funnel, including the context, emotions, goals, and other aspects of their behaviors and surroundings. That’s the key reason why customer journey maps (CJMs) are valuable to lay out.

What is a customer journey map?

Customer journey map we created for one of our clients — Here's a customer journey map we created for one of our clients. The purpose of it was to help them redesign their website. We used a tool called UXpressia to create this journey.

A customer journey map is a visualization of the series of steps a customer must take to interact with a product in relation to things like their thoughts, emotions, goals, and motives. So, for Sally with IKEA, these steps could look something like this:

Sally:

sees a big billboard advertising furniture at IKEA;
realizes she needs a new desk;
drives to the closest IKEA store;
walks into the store and picks ups the shopping bag;
....
leaves the store;
uses this piece of furniture every day

These bullet points are called touchpoints, i.e. every interaction between Sally and anything that's related to IKEA's brand.

Despite the usefulness of the customer journey mapping, it is by definition a generalization. As with any generalization, there is a certain degree of inaccuracy, but this does not outweigh the value that customer journey maps bring to the table.

Why bother creating a customer journey map?

Shortlisting the touchpoints is helpful whether or not you have a digital or physical product already created, or are planning to develop one.

Reasons why you need to create a customer journey map

If you wonder what we mean by “how people actually use your product” take a look at this picture.

See? Make sure you know your customers’ shortcuts 🙂

Before we dive into how customer journeys can be mapped, let’s take a look at what a bad customer journey might look like.

	Pre-Purchase	Purchase	Post Purchase
Touchpoints	Sally sees an offline ad.	Sally goes to an IKEA store, talks to a consultant and makes the purchase.	The piece of furniture has turned out to be a great purchase. Sally’s been using the furniture for a few months and loves it.
Goals	Sally needs a piece of furniture.	Sally wants to buy a desk.	Sally wants to pay for a piece of furniture.

Very few points

Not digging deep enough into why she might need new furniture. What life events precede wanting new furniture?

Why does she need a desk? What kind of desk might a user want? Why?

The customer journey is split into sections that are too broad

Not descriptive enough to be valuable.

Why does she need a desk? What kind of desk might a user want? Why?

An equally poor blunder is to create a customer journey and then leave it forgotten and abandoned on your Google Drive or network folder. Just like all your business activities, this map has a purpose. Depending on that purpose, you should customize your CJM and then put it into action.

How do I create a customer journey?

The tools

Literally, grab a piece of paper and a pen. If you prefer digital tools, open an Excel or Miro board. You can go as far as using designer tools like Sketch, Figma, or UXPressia. Whatever works best for you!

As you begin to create your first customer journey, it’ll be helpful to think about your Ideal Customer Persona (ICP). Having an ICP is crucial to every business for many different reasons, but when it comes to creating a customer journey map, this knowledge will help you understand a ton of things.

A good persona profile will tell you how busy your customers are, what their goals and priorities are, what they look for in the products they use, and many other demographics and psychographics. When in doubt, the ICP should always be your guide.

Don’t have an ICP yet? Check out this article to create one, or contact us. We’d be happy to help.

1. Write down the touchpoints

It’s usually advisable to split the touchpoints into logical sections. We can borrow the terminology from funnel analysis; feel free to modify the jargon if necessary, since some customer journeys do not entail buying something.

Let’s write the sections horizontally.

Awareness

Interest & Consideration

Evaluation & Purchase

Brand Evangelism

Great! Now let’s start filling in some touchpoints for Sally and IKEA. For the sake of simplicity, we’ll minimize the number of them.

If you want to see the bigger picture here’s the link to the whole journey.

Touchpoints

Awareness

Sally moves into a new appartment. She naturally needs furniture. Alongside with the new apartment Sally got an IKEA discount code.

Interest & Consideration

Sally goes online to research the options IKEA can provide her with. She also scrolls through different review sites to see what other people have to say about IKEA, and compares the prices for other furniture retailers too.

Evaluation

Sally drives to the closest IKEA store, enters the supermarket, gets the shopping bag, and enters the showroom.

Having gone through multiple showrooms, Sally has chosen a piece of furniture she wants. She also noticed a couple of buckets with products on sale, so she picked out a few other things she might need.

Evaluation

While heading to the warehouse, Sally also goes through the market hall. Again, Sally sees a lot of things she’ll probably need like lamps or curtains, so she picks up more stuff.

Purchase

Having arrived at the warehouse Sally wants to collect the piece of furniture she’s chosen. But then she realizes it might be too big to fit in her car.

Purchase

Sally asks a consultant whether it would be possible to have the furniture delivered to her house. Yes, it is possible. For an extra fee, the IKEA employees can even assemble it. Sally agrees.

Sally’s going home. A bit later that day she has her furniture delivered and assembled. She’s happy about the purchase.

Brand Evangelism

Wanting to share her great experience at IKEA, Sally boasts to her friends that she’s got new furniture. Then, she recommends IKEA to her other acquaintances.

2. Customer’s goals

Understanding the customer’s goals is the easiest way to tell whether your product’s functionality satisfies them. When thinking of goals, try to dig deep into the actual desires your customers have and the optimal ways to satisfy them.

Goals

Awareness

Sally needs a piece of furniture. She’s looking for a store to get one. She’s looking for a balance between quality and cost.

Interest & Consideration

Sally wants to compare the prices to make sure she’s getting a good deal. She also needs to make sure that the product she’s going to buy has good quality.

Evaluation

Sally drives to the closest IKEA store, enters the supermarket, gets the shopping bag and enters the showroom.

Having gone through multiple showrooms, Sally has chosen a piece of furniture she wants. She also noticed a couple buckets with products on sale, so she picked out a few other things she might need.

Evaluation

While heading to the warehouse, Sally also goes through the market hall. Again, Sally sees a lot of things she’ll probably need like lamps or curtains, so she picks up more stuff.

Purchase

Having arrived at the warehouse Sally wants to collect the piece of furniture she’s chosen. But then she realizes it might be too big to fit in her car.

Purchase

Sally asks a consultant whether it would be possible to have the furniture delivered to her house. Yes, it is possible. For an extra fee the IKEA employees can even assemble it. Sally agrees.

Sally’s going home. A bit later that day she has her furniture delivered and assembled. She’s happy about the purchase.

Brand Evangelism

Wanting to share her great experience at IKEA, Sally boasts to her friends that she’s got new furniture. Then, she recommends IKEA to her other acquaintances.

3. Emotions

Emotions are very often illustrated throughout the process as a squiggly line like the one below. Lines that go up symbolize people’s growing happiness, and lines that go down reflect increasing disappointment and negativity.

Understanding whether your customers are annoyed or enthusiastic is insightful when it comes to analyzing threats and opportunities in the customer journey. For example, when a customer is naturally annoyed, having an upselling pop-up might not the best idea. Conversely, if a customer is cheerful, then it would be great to capitalize on those positive emotions and attempt an upsell.

Emotions

Awareness

A little nervous. Sally has already moved in but hasn’t yet fully furnished her apartment. It does not feel like home yet.

Interest & Consideration

Sally feels somewhat enthusiastic, feels like the solution to her problem is right in front of her. She’s still not %100 certain though.

Evaluation

Sally is almost sure that she’s gonna get what she needs here. She’s hopeful.

Sally’s a little overwhelmed. Her check is getting bigger and bigger.

Purchase

Relieved. Sally wasn’t sure if she can load all her stuff into her car but it turns our IKEA can help her with that.

Brand Evangelism

Sally wants her acquaintances to think that she’s good at giving advice and be useful to others.

4. Key performance indicators (KPIs)

KPIs are especially important if you’re looking to improve your business metrics, but methodically tracking them can be difficult. Tracking these indicators is much easier for digital products due to all the analytics software out there, and the reason is simple: you’re able to know exactly how many people clicked on your ad but there’s no way to know how many people have seen your big board.

KPIs are great for setting internal goals related to customer engagement and sales.

KPIs

Awareness

Number of discount codes.

Interest & Consideration

Number of google searches related to IKEA.

Evaluation

Number of visitors / the amount of money an average customer spends on auxilary products.

Purchase

Number / percentage of customers who pay for the furniture delivery / assembling.

Brand Evangelism

Customer retention.

5. Problems

View your product as a solution to your potential customers’ problems. In other words, what other problems do your customers tend to have? How can you help them solve it? Is there enough information on the web or other places about the services you provide or the goods you sell? Do your customers have concerns about the quality of your products? Having a good idea of these types of problems will help you answer these questions and drive your revenue up.

Problems

Awareness

Sally’s apartment is pretty much plain. She wants to make it feel like home. She doesn’t know where she can get good furniture.

Interest & Consideration

There is a lot of information about IKEA and its competitors. It’s quite challenging to digest everything she needs to know.

Evaluation

IKEA store is huge. Sally’s overwhelmed with the options she has. She’s not sure whether she knows enough to make a good decision.

Sally’s getting more and more conscious about her budget. Getting a few things on discount is ok but spending too much on things she doesn’t really need is not.

Purchase

Sally doesn’t know how to get the piece of furniture delivered to her house.

Brand Evangelism

Sally doesn’t know if it’s worth recommending IKEA to other people cause she’s not sure if she’ll get rewarded.

6. Use your imagination

You can add as many rows as needed to make this customer journey map useful to your business, taking into account as many additional factors as needed. One could consider different demographics and psychographics of your customers, how they find out about your company, if they previously engaging with you online or offline, and what digital devices they use. It’s also worth taking a look at your own processes within the customer journey map, identifying stages that are ripe for optimization? The specifics depend on the kind of business you have, though, and you are the ultimate judge of what’s most relevant.

Your idea

Your Business Idea 1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.

Your Business Idea 2

Your Business Idea 3

Your Business Idea 4

Your Business Idea 5

Your Business Idea 6

Bringing the physical world online, and vice versa

All the principles we discuss in this article can and should be applied to software. We used IKEA as an example since their physical journey provides much fodder for discussion. However, we can also explore some digital-first companies and see how their customer journeys also translate into roundabout ways to tempt customers with additional purchases that might satisfy their myriad needs (and whims).

Let’s take Amazon as an example. Unlike IKEA, Amazon provides its customers with an easy and intuitive way to quickly find the main thing they’re looking for, either through the search bar or the product catalog. Customers simply need to type in what they want in the search bar and pick a product. However, in order to expose the shoppers to more “temptations”, there are additional areas of the website, like “compare to similar items”, “customers also search for”, “recommended by Amazon”, and other attention grabbers.

It’s important to note that customer journey maps don’t only apply to eCommerce or brick-and-mortar stores. They’re useful for any kind of physical or digital product or service.

Here are a few more examples.

If you don’t have a paid subscription, Spotify allows up to six skips while you’re listening to music playlists. If you try to skip a song for the seventh time, a “you’ve discovered a premium feature” pop-up appears, subsequently recommending the paid subscription. Allowing six skips helps you see the value in this particular feature, while the pop-up requests you to subscribe in order to have unlimited skips.

Grammarly, a proofreading and spellchecking internet browser extension, also provides a great example of utilizing the right time to upsell. Under the free plan, Grammarly only tells you if you’ve spelled everything correctly. If you also make a stylistic, word-choice, or other types of mistake, it simply alerts you and then suggests subscribing to see the details about what’s wrong.

Conclusion

As you can see, customer journey maps are very helpful in laying out your customers’ overall experiences in engaging with your company. Positive experiences yield positive results and growth. Negative experiences often yield negative returns.

Following the steps we outlined should give you a solid template for creating your own customer journey map. Since you’re the person who knows the ins and outs of your product or services and the customers you like working with, you’re the best person to map everything out. However, if you feel like you could use help from a professional, feel free to drop us a line or subscribe to our newsletter for more tips!

PS. As a reward for you, our beloved reader, who’s made it to the end, here’s a link to our customer journey template. Feel free to copy and modify for your needs.

Did you like the article?

Help us share it: