Swedish furniture powerhouse Ikea has launched its first online marketplace Ikea Preowned to rival famous retail platforms like eBay and Facebook Marketplace. Although for now the peer-to-peer resale platform is being trialled only in Madrid and Oslo, the company will analyze its success and decide whether to make it a permanent and globally-available initiative.
The news comes amidst the ongoing efforts of the brand to become a circular business by 2030, by reducing its resources and prolonging the life of its furniture. Besides the possibility of reselling old furniture, users will be able to order additional parts to refresh their furniture as part of the “care and repair” section.
Unlike the existing “buy-back” program that resells used Ikea furniture in stores, the marketplace will only be available online. Inka Group CEO Jesper Brodin revealed to the Financial Times that they might introduce “a humble fee” in the future for users to buy and sell products. However, for now, it is free of charge.
As used furniture has recently seen a surge in popularity and as Ikea’s pre-loved furniture makes up a big percentage of furniture sold on the existing online marketplaces, the move of the company to come up with its own platform, allowing sellers to list their furniture and homeware items, is not surprising.
The way it will work is no different from any other platform, sellers will need to upload photos of the furniture and set the price. The uniqueness of Ikea’s platform is in its use of AI to fill out the measurements of an item and even add supporting images from Ikea’s database, making the upload process much smoother for the sellers. Buyers, on the other hand, can pick up the purchase directly from the seller, who can choose to get paid directly via a bank transfer or receive an Ikea voucher comprised of the price of the sold item with an additional 15 percent credit.
Whether the marketplace will prove to be successful and expand beyond Oslo and Madrid will be known by the end of this year. However, the initiative has a real potential to make Ikea furniture even more accessible and reduce waste by prolonging the lifespan of its items. One thing is for certain, Ikea is looking for ways to become more sustainable, creating an additional space and taking steps to support its environmental commitments.
