Being the largest furniture retailer in the world, IKEA is constantly releasing new products, lines and concepts. Today, the brand launched their 2017 catalog with some big changes for the coming year. The theme of this year’s catalog “Goodbye Expectations. Hello you!” is centered around customers as real people—and not just consumers. This means that the brand is focusing on their products being designed for life, and helping people live free of traditional expectations.
To advance this year’s theme, IKEA included the stories of 13 real people throughout the catalog. The interesting thing is that the stories feature people from all over the world, displaying how the international retailer connects to different people in different cultures. The brand was aiming to show customers a side of IKEA that is unknown to most.
The biggest change this year is the new IKEA catalog app, which the brand redesigned to move in a more digital direction. It is supposed to improve functionality and offer more features for customers to dive deeper into the catalog content. It’s more than just a digital rendition of the printed catalog, but includes enhancements to allow viewers to look at products through augmented reality and experience a 360-degree view of a room to see how IKEA products can be incorporated into their own home. The app is now accessible through mobile devices, as well as on Apple TV.
In addition to these new features, the catalog highlights the ideals that IKEA has always been about: usability, functionality and designing for any size space. The company also included a section devoted to news about products that they will be releasing throughout 2017, and ways to use IKEA products for green, sustainable living.
Three new products in the 2017 IKEA catalog, from left to right: SUNNERSTA Cart ($29.99), LVISTBRO Storage Tables ($59.99) and GLADOM Tray Tables ($29.99).
The catalog was released in print on August 8 at your local IKEA store, and is available today through the catalog app for iOS and Android, or online at http://info.ikea-usa.com/catalog/.
