Leading IT and Digital Transformation at IKEA: Insights from an Industry Veteran

For CIOReview APAC’s upcoming edition, we would like Sigit Triwibowo, Head of IT and Digital and Chief Technology and Digital at IKEA Indonesia, to share his insights on information technology and digital transformation based on the experience gathered in the domain. Using the talk points in the questionnaire below, we can either set up an interview or you can provide written responses. These insights will be crafted into a thought-leadership/Q&A editorial piece, offering invaluable guidance and foresight to fellow senior-level decision-makers and CXOs.

Can you give us a short bio of yours and how the experiences you've gained have equipped you to lead IT and digital transformation at IKEA?

I have more than 25 years of experience as a Business Partner, Solution, PMO, Operations and Infrastructure, Digital Platform and Development. He is also an expert in reputed local and multinational companies across industries (FMCG, Telco, Manufacturing, Retail, Tobacco) such as IKEA, Philip Morris, Coca-Cola, and Danone for multinational companies and Bungasari Flour Mills and Mitratel for local companies.

I am a transformation leader with extensive experience overseeing many projects, starting with process improvement and streamlining, the latest technology adoption and change management.

How have the experiences you've gained equipped you to lead IT and digital transformation at IKEA?

I am always consistent in following the five pillars to lead the transformation

1. We need to have clear objectives and be supported by the higher management team

2. Communicate it clearly

3. Working on the current company culture to be ready for transformation

4. Improve the process and find the right technology

5. Appoint the right people to lead all agreed transformation project

In your view, what are the biggest opportunities and challenges facing retail stores in the current e-commerce-based landscape, and how are you addressing them?

Biggest opportunities:

Indonesia, as a growing country, has a lot of opportunities:

a. Significant increase in internet users from 88.48 million in 2014 to 274.2 in 2024, more than three times in 10 years

b. The cost of internet data reduces significantly every year

c. Geographical coverage significantly increases every year

"We have a service for customers to have an interior design done in-house, helping them create their dream design. These services are even free for our members of the IKEA family (our loyalty program)."

Based on this information, opportunities in the digital space are huge. Now, how can we leverage our brand to an e-commerce channel and digitalize it as much as possible in the offline store to improve customer experience?

Challenges:

a. How we compete our brand with other competitors

b. How we can leverage the right technology to make closer to our current customer or future customers and create as much as possible the customer meeting points

How to address:

a. Uniqueness of the brand and business model

b. Open minded

c. Listen to customers

d. Improve more and more customer experiences

How can IT enhance IKEA's room-based displays to make the in-store experience more interactive and personalized, nudging customers toward more purchases?

We have a service for customers to have an interior design done in-house, helping them create their dream design.

These services are even free for our members of the IKEA family (our loyalty program).

This program supported by IT and Digital team for offline store with user friendly solution for the IKEA co-worker, as well as customers to play with. Every single developed design will link automatically to our product range and pricing. Customer can also play around with the design, do shopping list and customize based on their preferences.

What emerging technologies do you believe will have the biggest impact on the retail industry in the coming years?

We use generative AI (GenAI) even for customer experience and data analysis. We can learn customer behavior and customer needs. Big data and analytical data are used to develop the use case on how we can improve customer experience. We have also introduced the Omni Channel solution for all our customers so that they can choose to learn and find the product and get the product from whatever location they prefer.

What advice would you give to your peers in the digital space based on your extensive experience?

Be open-minded and always ask for customer feedback on how to improve customer experience and keep up to date with emerging technology to help the organization internally and externally.

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