IKEA With over a year of experience as a Textiles Sales Assistant at IKEA, I developed strong skills in customer interaction, product storytelling, and materials knowledge.

Working in an environment filled with visual displays and product sourcing highlights was inspiring to me as a designer, as I observed how customers responded to these elements, using their feedback to spark meaningful conversations and provide detailed product recommendations [CA, US, BE].

This role allowed me to connect design knowledge with user behavior, deepen my understanding of materials in everyday contexts, and develop communication skills that combine aesthetics, business model and sustainability [CA, BE].

Through my experience of working in Sales, I have noticed that sustainability alone, unfortunately is not a selling point. Product locations and combinations along with store layout are carefully curated in response to customer feedback gathered mostly through numbers and frequency of sales [MDC].

Based on this data, I learned to make decisions about the display and price of various product, which is valuable experience that can be taken into account in my future design projects [BE, MDC].