Wow, is this the first React-Native success story? As far as mobile app startups are concerned?
Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
21–30 of 205 posts
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
My personal theory is that TaskRabbit is too general purpose for people to think to use it. When I am at a bar and want to be at my house, it's really easy for me to think of an app that will solve my problem. If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay some…
> If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay someone if they offered. That's the kind of problem nobody should ever have in the first place. The whole point is to work together on it, not just to give it. To have some stranger put it together defeats the pu…
Unless they wanted to dress up in a three piece suit with a top hat and smoke a cigar while they watch the train set being assembled in order to live out some kind of bizarre railroad executive fantasy possibly inspired by too many re-reads of Atlas Shrugged.
Point is, the purpose of toys is to have fun. I wouldn't regard my example to be any different than spending one's disposable income on a trip to Vegas or a VR headset.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#23Judging from my Ikea kitchen delivery experience, I fully expect to have some dude with $20k in cabinets tied to the roof of his Honda shop up at people's houses.
Holy cow, you spent $20k on Ikea kitchen cabinets?
Edit: Wow, you guys are touchy. For $20k you could get fully custom cabinets from a local shop made with cabinet-grade plywood for a typically-sized kitchen.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#24I hope this improves IKEA's absolutely awful installation experience. I recently did some kitchen cabinets, and while the people who did the actual install were great, everything about the experience was awful. IKEA contracted it out to Traemand, who sub-contracted it out to a local company. The local company was really hard to get ahold of and kept losing paperwork and not scheduling things. Once they did schedule s…
Kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater here...IKEA might still be great for you as long as you avoid all the subcontracted installation services? Unless you don't know or care to turn a screwdriver, I guess! :)
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#25IKEA needs to solve the problem with distance to store or shipping. More than just the "Collection Points" they are building. They need to partner with a physical brick and mortar store to ship and store product. Similar to what Amazon is going to do with Whole Foods. IKEA needs a partner like Whole Foods where users can pick up their product. Currently buying anything on IKEA and having it shipped is super costly, a…
> Currently buying anything on IKEA and having it shipped is super costly
It's definitely a problem. I'm about 3-4 hours away from the nearest Ikea. And it would cost $250 to get any large items: http://ikeadirectcatalogorder.com (Yes, that is the official site).
Now, by day, I'm an engineer who builds large machines. I have a semi truck or lowboy in my parking lot weekly. I get that freight is expensive - $250 to have a truck to my door isn't great for one skid, but it's not bad either. But at home? I'm used to free shipping, and that's jaw-droppingly expensive.
Ikea is a strongly price-competitive seller. They can't afford to bump all their prices by 20% and offer "free" shipping, because in-store purchasers would mutiny.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#26Judging from my Ikea kitchen delivery experience, I fully expect to have some dude with $20k in cabinets tied to the roof of his Honda shop up at people's houses.
Holy cow, you spent $20k on Ikea kitchen cabinets? Edit: Wow, you guys are touchy. For $20k you could get fully custom cabinets from a local shop made with cabinet-grade plywood for a typically-sized kitchen.
Ikea kitchens are very nice.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#27I hope this improves IKEA's absolutely awful installation experience. I recently did some kitchen cabinets, and while the people who did the actual install were great, everything about the experience was awful. IKEA contracted it out to Traemand, who sub-contracted it out to a local company. The local company was really hard to get ahold of and kept losing paperwork and not scheduling things. Once they did schedule s…
Kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater here...IKEA might still be great for you as long as you avoid all the subcontracted installation services? Unless you don't know or care to turn a screwdriver, I guess! :)
Not OP, but I'm fine putting together basic IKEA furniture but don't think I would try to install kitchen cabinets myself.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#28Good for TaskRabbit. They've worked hard for years
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#29Wow, is this the first React-Native success story? As far as mobile app startups are concerned?
Sure. React Native made them have a great business model that covers a niche and solves a real problem. Thanks to React Native they could negotiate a better deal with Ikea.
Sigh.
Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit
#30This is an interesting move, a design/manufacturing/retail company buying a labor marketplace company.
Ikea has grown a ton based on having widely appealing products at extremely low prices. Their growth over the past decade has been driven by expanding their physical retail presence on the one-giant-store-per-city model. The store build-out on this model may be done, at least in the US. Still, many potential buyers aren't willing to make the pilgrimage to Ikea because it's far, or simply because you can get an OK entertainment center at Target instead.
Key to Ikea's brand is the memorable in-store experience. If they can match that in their in-home shopping apps and in delivery/assembly/install services, they could grow significantly. If they believe this, expect them to leverage TaskRabbit not just to streamline delivery/install but to offer new Ikea-branded services. A few ideas:
* New apartment? Use our app to pick and place furniture, our designers to get advice, and our people to deliver and install everything.
* Remodel mockup services. Not sure how your kitchen layout will look? Have us block things out using cardboard boxes to you can walk through and feel it out.
* Organization & storage. Have someone go through your basement and inventory everything. Use our app to route each item to donation, resale, or storage. Once stored, app helps you find an item whether it's in your basement (shelf 3, bay 12) or retrievable by delivery-on-request.