Disclaimer: I have not been paid to endorse or promote Ikea, it just happens to be my happy place :) I don't manage to visit often but when I do I've found a function on their website that makes our visit so much easier and far more organized too & this is what I wanted to share with you x
Hi honeys
I hope you're well and enjoying some lovely May sunshine. I thought today I'd share one of my favourite functions on the Ikea website. We've been using this function for a while now and it makes a shopping trip to my "happy place" so much less stressful and as much fun as something should be when it's so looked forward to :)
I know I've explained before honeys that since we don't own a car and our "local" Ikea store is so far away, well it's not easy to get there and so each time we do visit, it's planned far in advance and we pretty much know what we're going for. Which leads us neatly onto the subject of shopping lists :)
One of the best functions on the Ikea website is the ability to set up shopping lists. Whether used as a way to plan your next store visit, or just to store items as possible purchases for a planned future project it's such a useful tool. We have four lists at the moment for different projects... but I'm getting ahead of myself :)
OK, from the beginning then honeys, if you go to the home page of the Ikea website you'll see this:
As you can see from the welcome message, I'm in the UK but I'm sure that no matter where you are the layout will be the same. From this top banner, choose the "store shopping list" option.
If you have yet to start a shopping list, this will take you to a page which looks like this:
Under the heading of shopping list on this page, there is a button to create a new list. If you click this, your list will be created and you can name it. Don't worry too much about what you call your list, you can re-name it later if you want to.
Once a list is created it will show as a link under the shopping list heading. As you can see below, we currently have four shopping lists, each with its own purpose.
We tend to organize our lists by whatever we're doing at that point in time but the one constant is the "next visit" list Items my be added to the other lists for any number of reasons. For example:
1. An item we might want to show to our "other half" because it's new or part of a new range
2. An item that might help a project along ie: items in the organizing supplies list
3. Sometimes just because we've either of us seen something & liked it :)
Not all of the items we "bookmark" or add to an associated list will make it onto the "next visit" list. The "next visit" list is purely for things we intend to purchase on our next shopping trip.
So honeys, Ikea not only allows you to create your own list (or even multiple lists) but it is only when you start to add items to your list(s) that the other functions of these clever little lists become clear.
Once created, these lists allow you to see at a glance:
1. Current stock levels of each item available in your local store
2. Current prices, or even
3. If the product can be ordered for home delivery.
The "in stock" or availability column which displays how many pieces of each product are available in store at that time, is also colour coded. These colours are shown in a column to be found, again on the left hand side of the screen.
Under your "Create a list" button you will see an "add product" tool, allowing you to add a product directly to your shopping list if you have the products article number. If you don't have this number, you will find two buttons on each product page.
One says "add to list" and if you have more than one list you'll be able to chose which list to add the item to. The other button will say "add to basket" but this button is only available when the item is available for home delivery.
The column under the "add product" tool is the colourful key to understanding the "in stock" column of your shopping list and looks like this....
As you can see honeys, if your product shows in green you have a much better chance of finding it available in store when you get there. At the very bottom of this left hand column you will find a link which takes you to a page of offers exclusively available that week in your local store.
Different stores will have different products available on special offer. I work in retail and this is probably a great way for each store to move on products they have an overstock of, but for us customers it's also a great opportunity to pick up one of the items on our list at a knock down price too, so it's always worth checking what these offers are before setting off on your visit.
You might be able to pick up an item you were "on the fence" about buying because the price was a little too high for your available budget. Lets have a look at these page components all together then....
As you can see honeys, if we were planning to visit the store today (which since Hubby is at work, we're not, unfortunately) but the rug we're planning on buying for the guest room upstairs, which is doubling as my craft room, is available and there are 18 of these products available right now.
Having had fun making your list (I so love doing this :) it is then possible to print it out and bring it to the store with you. You'll find when you print the list out it will have the date and time the system checked the stock availability for you, as well as the location of items in-store.
This makes every visit an absolute breeze for us since not only do we never forget anything, but we know what we're looking for in each section of the store as we arrive in it. The items are listed in the order you'll encounter them going around the store. How great is that :) It's also possible to email the list too. Hubby & I have been known to email lists back and forth :)
I hope this post has helped explain the Ikea shopping list tool honeys, I so love this ever so useful function of a web site I spend far too long visiting :) Like I said, Ikea is my own personal happy place :) Do you use the shopping list tool? Is there anything I've missed?
thank you for dropping by and keeping me company dear ones, till next time, keep smiling and have fun, hugs always xx