Ikea inks outsourcing deal with Airtasker

Ikea-store-brand-logoThe necessity of frustrating allen key experiences when constructing Ikea furniture will soon be a thing of the past.

Swedish flat-pack giant Ikea has inked a deal with task-outsourcing marketplace Airtasker that will facilitate enabling its customers to pay someone to visit their home and construct their furniture for them.

The move follows a successful beta test conducted out of Ikea’s Tempe store in Sydney and is an interesting move from the Swedish giant, given its penchant for the do-it-yourself shopper.

But 15 per cent of Airtasker traffic already revolves around furniture assembly, buoying Ikea’s confidence that its time to get in on the action.

Under the partnership Ikea verified Airtaskers, who will need to have an ABN, police check, a minimum 80 per cent completed task rate and a minimum 4 star rating, will enter the homes of customers to take over assembly duties.

The program will be rolled out nationally, and will be available across Airtasker’s online platform by mid-2018.

Ikea customer experience manager Cass Hall said the company is always looking into new solutions to enable their customers to have a better shopping experience, and the Airtasker partnership is no different.

“In working with Airtasker we’re giving customers more choice when it comes to how they assemble their furniture. Many of our customers will continue to do-it themselves, but we are seeing an increase in take-up of services that make the shopping experience quicker and easier. Verified Ikea Airtaskers will give customers confidence when using this service,” Hall said.

Ikea isn’t the only major retail brand to turn to Airtasker in recent months in the pursuit of an expanded customer experience, supermarket giant Coles has also partnered with the business on a personalised shopper service.

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