SEO

On a COVID morning, with barely enough groceries to whip up a meal, every Mrs. Helpless was completely clueless looking at the hungry, wailing babies, and this scenario was increasing in numbers. This was indeed a pressing problem, and from an established furniture design tycoon like IKEA, a marvellous idea came into form! One brand, many companies, and many, many people—that’s IKEA in a nutshell. Spread all over the world, IKEA has a passion for home furnishing and an inspiring shared vision: “to create a better everyday life for many people”. This, together with their straightforward business idea, shared values, and a culture based on the spirit of togetherness, guides them in everything they do.

Why don’t we create a food delivery app as a norm to keep people swarming in at grocery stores when many people are still getting left out due to restrictions such as social distancing and COVID hotspot barricading? Food eCommerce was not a newly coined term; with many giants already in place, rebranding a furniture tycoon to this niche was a game-changer. The challenge was big and heavy, yet the impact would not be less than a “big bang.” It was not a complete face-off, yet adding a fresh layer of service from a completely different industry that snugged in pitch-perfectly was an elephantine task that craved technical assistance.

After compiling the entire list of requirements and jotting down the technical, economical feasibility, and time framing of each requirement, the design phase was sketched out with user intuitiveness and experience at the forefront. The development phase was interwoven with agile methodologies and sprint cycles for faster development cycles with fewer pipeline delays. Aggressive test execution phases were implemented in multiple use cases, and final deliverables were exchanged within the schedule with matchless performance. Merging the standalone app with the parent app and integrating it with the “proposed food developed app” was the first move to retain the brand presence in the “offspring app.” Though rebranding was not completely possible, introducing IKEA as a food delivery service provider into the mainstream and laying the groundwork for holding a strong marketplace in food eCommerce needed a strong thought process and meticulous planning.