As-is Market
Addressing the recurring issue of missing reservations on the second-hand goods market
Service Design - Website
Project Overview
During my studies, I worked part-time as a Product & Recovery Team Member at IKEA, one of my responsibilities was to manage the As-Is Online inventory.
I noticed a recurring issue with As-is Online, where customers would arrive in-store to pick up their reservation only to find that the item was missing — i.e. it had already sold and the listing hadn't been updated.
Understandably, customers were extremely unhappy and the issue was escalated and the customer was provided with a brand-new version of the item at the discounted price.
Miro
Figma
Google Forms
Google Docs
Freeform
Tools
Role
Service Designer
Context
As-is Market is essentially IKEA's bargain corner.
Customers can find items that have been discounted because the item was damaged, discontinued, second-hand, an ex-display or missing parts.
Customers can browse these items in-store and online.
However, while in-store items are sold assembled. Online items are still in their packaging (boxes, wrapping) due to space constraints in the back-rooms.
The purpose of As-is Market is to promote re-use of items - at an even more affordable cost and recover material and financial losses of the store due to: in-store displays, damages in-transit, returns, etc.
What is As-is Market?
Why address this problem?
Financial loss in a department designed to save costs storewide.
Loss of customer trust in IKEA.
Inefficient use of staff time
Rummaging for products that are no longer in stock.
Apologising to customers and offering explanation.
Process
New problem statements emerged…
"How might we facilitate accurate and intuitive inventory tracking and updating of listings in As-is Market?
Discovery
I interviewed 3 IKEA Team Members working in the Recovery Department,
they identified two main causes:
iRecovery
iRecovery, a newly implemented software that runs on desktop and handheld devices that Recovery staff use in-store to process articles received into the department.
Items need to be scanned and confirmed as received by Recovery staff because the item has been marked as a cost-loss.
Items usually come in by:
Returns & Exchanges
Ex-displays
Pick-up and Delivery
The new system is causing problems as it requires staff to make quick judgements of the item upon scanning instead of allowing time for further assessment - staff need to price items for As-is Market, repackage item or dispose.
When pricing, coworkers have accidentally ticked 'List Item Online' by accident - leading to confusion amongst staff and frustrated customers missing their reservation.
Fragility of pricing stickers
Recovery Co-workers are responsible for pricing items for sale in As-is Market based on their assessment of the condition of the product and create a price that they feel is appropriate to what customers would purchase the item for.
The stickers are made of paper and are stuck on the boxes or furniture. During storage, the stickers often become torn or ripped, meaning that the QR code on the sticker cannot be scanned at the check-outs.
Usually there is a long ID code for each sticker, however sometimes the sticker is so mangled that it is no longer recoverable.
As a result, the sticker is re-created completely new.