The IKEA store concept was developed by Hans Ax, the manager of the Kungens Kurva store, with the flexibility to incorporate all the learning from the previous five years. The elements of the IKEA model include a playroom for children by the entrance, a long, winding path through room displays, flat-pack furniture, self-service, portable furniture in small sizes for easier transportation, fewer items that needed to be ordered, and a restaurant. The opening hours were also designed to suit customers and workers alike, with part-time IKEA workers having more flexible hours.

Although the company had moved away from the original mail order, IKEA continued with the catalogue, which was produced and distributed throughout the locality of each store. The catalogue served to tempt customers, who then would be taken on a journey through different set-piece room displays featuring bedrooms, kitchens and living rooms, each at different price points and sizes, so customers could see how furniture would look in real environments.

The concept became a fixed predetermined design that future stores would have to follow, stipulating, for example, that living room interiors would be immediately located after the entrance, just as there would be a shop after the check-out selling Swedish food delicacies. If store managers wished to alter any part of the concept, they would have to ask permission.

The transformation from formal to informal was initiated by Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA. Until the late 1960s, Kamprad wore smart suits and was quite formal in manner, smoking a pipe as typical of executives at the time. In the early 1970s, a transformation took place, with Kamprad adopting casual clothes, snus (a Swedish form of sniffing tobacco, cheaper than pipe tobacco), an ordinary car and greater interaction with workers. This transformation coincided with IKEA expanding beyond Scandinavia, with the first store outside of Scandinavia being built in Switzerland in 1973.

In summary, the elements of the IKEA store concept were developed by Hans Ax, the manager of the Kungens Kurva store, while the transformation from formal to informal was initiated by Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of IKEA.