How Ikea Switzerland benefits from UGC | Case study

Unbeknownst to probably no one, the Swedish company IKEA is the world’s largest and leading furniture retailer. Their Swiss branch, IKEA Switzerland, has been using Flowbox to work with User Generated Content (UGC) for 2 years now and is seeing such great results that Switzerland has been named one of IKEA’s best practice countries for UGC!

Numbers

The Story

There are nine IKEA stores in Switzerland, all of which each have their own social media store account as well as their own pages on IKEA.ch, where some have integrated their own Flowbox Flows. There are several co-workers involved with access to Flowbox, but according to Ines Bolter, Online Content Specialist at IKEA Switzerland, it’s never a problem.

“Sometimes mistakes happen where the wrong picture accidentally gets tagged, but we are very good at communicating effectively so it gets solved quickly and it’s no problem.”

Ines Bolter – Online Content Specialist at IKEA Switzerland

“That’s the IKEA culture – it’s hands on and everyone gets involved, no matter their job title. It’s a very integrated approach.”

Martin Hepp – Online Content Team Leader at IKEA Switzerland

As far as everyday use of the platform goes, Ines, being the main user, used to spend approximately 5-6 hours per week working in Flowbox, but since they upgraded to the Moderation package, she now only spends about 2-3 hours in the platform per week. All User Generated Content collected and moderated via Flowbox is now prominently displayed across IKEA.ch (on their homepage, inspiration page, product pages and room pages), enriching the customer experience.

Challenge

IKEA Switzerland wanted to start to incorporate UGC and content from their social media channels but according to the team, Swiss people generally aren’t, or at least haven’t been, too keen on home furnishing, preferring to spend their money elsewhere. The Swiss also value their personal privacy, resulting in less social media posts in comparison to other markets. These aspects aren’t exactly an ideal foundation for working with User GeneratedCcontent, but IKEA Switzerland knew that if they could get started with UGC, they could start to change some minds and get people excited about being a part of the community.

There was never a lack of images from IKEA’s side; they own one of the largest photo studios in the world, so content is not a problem. However, IKEA Switzerland realized the importance of showing their customers a more natural, authentic side of their products, rather than just perfectly lit and staged studio shots.

“A lot of people look at IKEA advertisements and think ‘my home doesn’t look like that’ and ‘I can’t do that in my home’, and I am convinced that UGC can show them how easy it is. If other people can do it, so can you.”

Ines Bolter – Online Content Specialist at IKEA Switzerland

Solution

After looking at multiple different solutions and companies, Flowbox was crowned the winner in IKEA Switzerland’s eyes, in large part thanks to the simplicity of the platform.

“Flowbox is very easy to use, and it’s straightforward. You don’t have to check it all the time since it’s automatic, and that’s pretty cool compared to other tools that I’ve seen that are more complicated.”

Vanessa Jenni – Online Content Specialist at IKEA Switzerland

“The best part about using Flowbox is that it’s easy to take User Generated Content and directly mirror it on IKEA.ch. We have the opportunity to show social media content to people that might not use Instagram, and that’s also a huge advantage.”

Ines Bolter – Online Content Specialist at IKEA Switzerland

Results