Thomson Reuters
Assembling Ikea furniture is traditionally one of the most annoying parts of shopping at the retailer.
- Ikea acquired TaskRabbit, a company that links customers to handymen, in September 2017.
- Customers in two of its West Coast stores can now book a "tasker" to assemble the furniture once they get home.
- This service will be rolled out nationwide in the next few months.
Ikea just made life much easier for DIY novices.
In September, the Scandinavian furniture chain acquired TaskRabbit, a company that lets users hire temporary workers to deliver purchases, clean homes, and even assemble furniture.
Today, TaskRabbit announced that its services will now be available to customers in two Ikea stores in California, in Emeryville and East Palo Alto. This means that shoppers can hire a "tasker" from the app or through an Ikea employee in-store once they have purchased the products.
The service will be rolled out nationwide in the next few months, a spokesperson for TaskRabbit said.
Ikea already has an official partnership with TaskRabbit in the UK. The program offers fixed pricing for customers seeking someone to assemble furniture purchased from Ikea - a famously tricky task.
The new service enables Ikea stores to compete with furniture-selling rivals such as Wayfair and Amazon.
"The purchase of TaskRabbit was fueled by Ikea's need to bolster its digital customer service capabilities to better compete with rivals like Amazon, which has stepped up its home goods and installation offerings," Recode reported before the deal had been officially announced last year. "The purchase is Ikea's first step into the on-demand platform space."
The TaskRabbit workers are vetted by the company. TaskRabbit said it will continue to operate as an independent company and will offer its services to other customers.
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