Al-Futtaim IKEA took the embarrassment of wearing a yellow shirt to a local IKEA store and turned it into a job opportunity with its newest promotion, IKEA co-worker for the day

With the IKEA app, anyone could be as knowledgeable as an actual IKEA co-worker. The brand used its yellow shirted customers to boost its numbers during the busiest sale season yet

Dubai, UAE, 2 February 2022 – During sale season, Al-Futtaim IKEA’s foot traffic can increase by over 600%. While that’s great for business, the bad news is, co-worker numbers remain the same. To combat this, the region’s leading Swedish home furnishing retailer took advantage of a very common fashion mishap: wearing a yellow shirt to your local IKEA.

Yellow is the colour IKEA co-workers proudly wear but if you’re a customer it can lead to an awkward encounter or two as you’re mistaken for one of the team. For its upcoming sale season, IKEA wanted to take advantage of this and turn those yellow shirted customers into its greatest asset.

Enter IKEA co-worker for the day campaign, a promotion where customers could become IKEA co-workers for a few hours as long as they were already wearing a yellow shirt. Their secret weapon was of course the IKEA app. Armed with the app, they would have the same knowledge of IKEA as an actual co-worker.

Using the IKEA app, co-workers for the day could point other customers to the best deals around the store. Whatever another customer needed, the app had all the answers. In exchange for their not-so-hard work, IKEA would reward the ‘co-workers of the day’ with a gift voucher that can be redeemed on their next purchase.

Commenting on the campaign, Vinod Jayan, Managing Director at IKEA UAE, Qatar, Oman and Egypt said, “We were delighted to give our customers the chance to join the IKEA co-worker’s family, even if only for the day. We wanted to reward those who were brave enough to wear yellow and adorn the IKEA colours while also showing everyone just how versatile and adept the IKEA app

is at helping customers find their way around the store. The two things combined gave life to this light-hearted activation and we couldn’t be happier.”

The IKEA app allows customers to browse the complete range, add products to a shopping cart and complete their purchase journey with a secured and seamless checkout. The new enhanced visual scan allows customers to search for products by simply clicking a picture. Additionally, they can scan barcodes, and article numbers to get product information, stock availability and join as an IKEA Family member accessing discounted member prices on selected IKEA products. The app is available in English and Arabic.

Through this promotion, IKEA was able to turn the yellow shirts for customers into an asset during the busiest season. This also showed the whole UAE community why downloading the IKEA app is essential for all their needs while shopping at IKEA. With the app, IKEA proved that anyone has what it takes to be an IKEA co-worker for the day.