Chris Welsh, CEO, Saturn Visual Solutions

MANCHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM, July 25, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New research has found that more than one in five UK adults (21%) say that IKEA is the most fun store they’ve been to.

The survey, commissioned by Saturn Visual Solutions and carried out by OnePoll, asked 2,000 UK-based, adult full-time and part-time workers what the three most ‘fun’ stores they’d visited were. The Swedish, modern furniture retailer topped the chart in all age groups, and with females (26%), males (16%).

IKEA stores are more popular with the younger generation, with more than a quarter (26%) of under-34-year-olds naming it as the most fun store, as opposed to 16 per cent of over 55- year-olds. The two other furniture and homewares stores in the list, B&Q and Dunelm, came out as considerably less popular, having been selected by just six per cent of respondents.

Saturn CEO, Chris Welsh, said: “The retail sector is in a state of flux at the moment. One of the most important things retailers seem to be overlooking is that shopping should be a fun and enjoyable activity, which is why we thought this research was long overdue. It’s no wonder that many people prefer the convenience of online shopping when going into stores can be a pretty dull experience.

“With so much to explore in their stores, it’s not surprising that IKEA was named by so many or that it’s so successful around the globe. We were a little surprised that it managed to knock popular brands like Lego, Lush, and Apple off the top spot though.“

Second on the ‘most fun shopping experience’ list was LEGO^® Stores, which was named by 15 per cent of the respondents. LEGO^® Stores was most popular with non-binary respondents (17%) and was equally popular with males (15%) and females (15%). It was significantly ahead of other toy stores, with the Build-a-Bear Workshops coming fifth (9%) in the list, whereas The Entertainer (7%), Game (5%) and Warhammer/Games Workshop (4%) appeared lower down the table.

Ranked third, and the most ‘fun’ clothing/accessories store in the list, was TK Maxx, with ten per cent of respondents enjoying its constantly changing selections of reduced-price brand name and designer products. It was equally as popular with males (10%) and females (10%). M&S was the second-highest ranking clothing and accessories store, finishing eighth (8%).

Lush was fourth in the list and was by far the most popular cosmetics store (9%), with both Boots and Body Shop named by just five per cent of the respondents.

The Apple Store was the highest ranked electrical goods store (9%) and sixth in the table overall, having been favoured by younger people (11% of under 34-year-olds). Curry’s was ranked ninth, three places below the Apple Store (8%), and was most highly rated by the over 65s (15%).

Despite having fallen into administration twice (once in 2013 and once in 2018), HMV was ranked seventh in the list (9%). It was named by 13 per cent of males as the most fun store and was popular across all but one age group, the under 24s (named by only 5% of respondents in that age group). HMV was named by just five per cent of female respondents.

Selfridges was the highest ranked department store with seven per cent of respondents naming it as one of the most fun stores, whereas Harvey Nichols was named by just four per cent.

Chris Welsh added: “It’s worth noting that all of the top five stores in our survey results have some sort of an interactive or a surprising element to them, and this is what makes them such a fun place to shop.

“Times have changed (and continue to do so) and retailers need to recognise that people have lots of buying options, so the more fun and appealing they can make their stores, across all generations and genders, the more profitable they’re likely to be.”

Saturn Visual Solutions is a digital signage consultancy and works with retail businesses to help them make their in-store shopping experience more engaging and fun to increase profitability.

Saturn has used the research to produce a white paper called ‘Re-energising retail - How the 2024 in-store experience is changing and what to do about it’ which can be found here.

Emma Radcliffe
Saturn Visual Solutions
+44 7855 015137
emma.radcliffe@saturnvisual.com
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