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Swedish furniture giant IKEA has teamed up with Xiaomi Corp. to integrate its smart lighting products with the Chinese smartphone maker's Internet of Things platform.
This is not the first time that IKEA has partnered with a technology company to provide digital solutions for its products. Its intelligent lighting products are already compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple's HomeKit and Google Assistant.
In the last agreement, the IKEA's full range of intelligent lighting products will be connected to Xiaomi's IoT system next month, providing support for the Xiao Ai Smart Assistant and the Mi Home app.
In doing so, IKEA will be able to leverage Xiaomi's vast user base in China to drive growth. At the moment, it is able to reach more customers for its smart home products in the United States, where about 40 million consumers use the smart speaker to control electrical appliances, furniture and house furniture. Beyond this, the company wants to exploit demand in China and other emerging markets.
Xiaomi has probably set up the biggest IoT platform in China. Overall, the company is connected to more than As of September 30, there were 132 million smart devices (excluding mobile phones and laptops) and over 20 million active devices in more than 200 countries and regions around the world.
The Xiao Ai vocal assistant alone has been activated on about 100 million devices, with monthly active users of more than 34 million and cumulative wakeup times of more than 8 billion.
Björn Block has been head of IKEA's smart home business for five years. He thinks that the agreement with Xiaomi will improve the user experience of IoT products by making them less complicated and more affordable.
IKEA is under pressure to transform its business in the context of consumers' ever-changing buying habits. The company is in the process of creating "IKEA of the future". Although it plans to cut 7,500 jobs over the next two years, it will create an additional 11,500 jobs as it grows.
In China, IKEA will cut 160 jobs but will create 3,200 new ones positions as he adopts a new economic model in line with its digital transformation.
Anna Pawlak-Kuliga, general manager of IKEA China, said the company would expand its e-commerce business via various platforms such as the WeChat mini program and flash sales stores to attract Chinese consumers.
IKEA currently has 25 stores in 20 cities in China, as well as two collection points and three distribution centers. He opened six new hyper stores in Xuzhou, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou, Changsha and Guiyang.
The company is in the process of revising its retail plans in China as the market is evolving rapidly, but will retain a variety of formats, including hypermarkets, collection points, experience centers and shopping centers. distribution. and e-commerce platforms, said Kuliga.
For the 2019 fiscal year, IKEA will invest 16 billion yuan (2.3 billion USD) in China, the highest amount of the last 20 years.
The partnership with Xiaomi will certainly bring IKEA closer to Chinese customers, especially tech-savvy young people. This is important for Swedish society: Chinese consumers are now buying most of their online purchases and Xiaomi is one of the most famous brands in the country.
As a result of this agreement, IKEA's smart lighting products will be on Xiaomi's store shelves, which, with its own online and offline outlets, will further strengthen the Swedish company's presence in the large market.
Currently, Xiaomi operates more than 300 retail stores in China. In addition to intelligent lighting, other IKEA smart appliances, such as washing machines, dishwashers and refrigerators, could also be part of Xiaomi's IoT network.
The alliance with Xiaomi is part of IKEA's digital and business transformation.
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