- By Anu Thomas
Ikea’s furniture may be an omnipresent fixture at most houses in the west, but its warehouses are flooded with something else — items that are returned by customers. With reportedly $44.6 billion worth of products sold across its 433 stores in 52 countries, roughly one of every 10 of those are returned, and this is a big problem for the company. But the Swedish retailer has an AI-powered solution.
The company has announced a smart approach to customer returns, which will incidentally also cut its costs. Without redirecting its merchandise to the trash bin, Ikea has started leveraging an AI system that suggests the most profitable destinations for returned items instead.
Ikea’s AI-Powered Solution
The extent of the problem that waste posits for the company cannot be emphasised enough. Moreover, once an item leaves its coffers, the company does not have much control over whether or not it gets returned.
Ikea is trying to tackle this by preventing these returns in the
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Anu Thomas
Anu is a writer who stews in existential angst and actively seeks what’s broken. Lover of avant-garde films and BoJack Horseman fan theories, she has previously worked for Economic Times. Contact: anu.thomas@analyticsindiamag.com
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