Dive Brief:
- To further assist with customers’ assembly needs, Ikea has expanded its partnership with Taskrabbit, according to a Thursday press release.
- Shoppers can now book and pay for a Taskrabbit contractor to assemble their furniture while finalizing their Ikea purchases. In the past, Ikea customers had to book Taskrabbit assembly separately.
- The integration is available at Ikea locations in the U.S., the U.K., Canada and Spain, according to the announcement.
Dive Insight:
Integrating Taksrabbit’s services into the Ikea checkout process helps streamline the experience for customers and builds on a yearslong partnership between the two companies.
Ikea’s parent company, Ingka Holding BV and its controlled entities bought the gig work platform in 2017. The following year, the company debuted its TaskRabbit At-Home Assembly service at six of its Ikea stores before expanding it further.
So far, adding Taskrabbit to its checkout has yielded sizable returns for Ikea. Taskrabbit noted that the share of shoppers buying assembly services through the new booking experience has increased by 50% compared to before, according to Thursday’s announcement. Plus, returns have fallen 40%, and the average order value has spiked nearly five-fold since adding the service at checkout, Taskrabbit said.
“Taskrabbit’s assembly service has been a game-changer for our customers, offering them convenience and reliability, two must-haves when shopping at Ikea,” Javier Quiñones, CEO of Ikea U.S., said in a statement. “This integration also provides Ikea with a competitive advantage — we’ve seen improved customer satisfaction and increased sales as customers include assembly with their furniture purchase.”
Ikea has also been working to make its products more affordable for shoppers. In late 2023, after the retailer surpassed $6.3 billion in total sales, it reduced prices in U.S. stores and online and paid $54.5 million in bonuses to two-thirds of its Ikea U.S. unit.