Ex-Apple Engineer Launches Furniture Company to Rival IKEA

> Prices for the Campaign items — chairs start at $495, love seats at $745 and sofas at $995 — are a bit more than Ikea’s, but they include shipping to anywhere in the US.

"A bit more" is a drastic understatement. Somebody buying a $160 Poäng for their first apartment or to replace a chair that three kids broke is nowhere near the same demographic as these prices.

I despise a lot of what IKEA designs but some of their products are truly great. Quality is a rollercoaster, too. Some pieces in my kitchen are super sturdy, some of their less specific furniture, on the other hand, is crap. Nonetheless almost all of their designs have a strict language and are very likely to concur to the brand perception. This Campaign chair and sofas look good, but the designs is not very inspired in my opinion. More like the mid-century fake brands that many big furniture companies are churning out to cash in on the huge mid-century revival we're experiencing.

What I find extremely interesting, though, is the way this guy will solve one of the biggest problems of selling furniture online: shipments and returns. The smart packaging is great for shipping but is also great for making people return items easily. That's not to be underestimated. People, at least here in Europe, are skeptical about buying furniture online because even if the website offers free returns they're aware of the extreme hassle it will be to actually do that.

My own experience with IKEA is that they constantly remove quality products from their offering. Time to time there are some pearls but the trend seams to be the reduction of prices and the quality as result.