I remember first hearing about IKEA in the early 90′s. My friends were telling me about this great shop, it had really cool cheap furniture with really stupid names.
On my first visit I was blown away, there was simply nothing else like it. How could the local store possibly compete with this furniture monster?
In those days IKEA were considered an overnight success but I read a very interesting article that gave some great facts about IKEA that confirm that if you keep at it and the ideas good it will happen.
Great facts from that article:
- The big idea came about because IKEA’s owner couldn’t fit the chair he brought in his car
- Its estimated that 1 in 10 babies were conceived on an IKEA bed.
- IKEA floundered for 30 YEARS before it found success overseas.
A great quote
The second great quote i came accross was from the founder of the LinkedIn business network:
‘If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.’
I’m positive the first IKEA flat pack chair wasn’t the best chair ever, but he got it out to market. This quote shouldn’t give you an excuse for not giving your website everything you’ve got.
What I hope it re-inforces is that your site will never be finished. Testing and measuring the successful elements of your sites design as early as possible are the key to fine tuning it to your audience.