Swedish furniture group Ikea has launched a second-hand online shop for customers in Oslo and Madrid. The new store, which will initially run on a trial basis, will position Ikea as a direct competitor to established resale giants such as eBay, Gumtree and Finn. Ikea Preowned is a dedicated online platform that allows customers to buy and sell used Ikea products directly.
The test phase in the Spanish and Norwegian capitals will run until the end of the year, Jesper Brodin, CEO of the Ingka Group, which operates most Ikea shops worldwide, told the Financial Times. If the business model is successful, the plan is to roll it out worldwide.
With this new concept, Ikea is going well beyond its previous offering, where the company accepts used furniture itself and resells it in its stores. Last year alone, around 211,000 customers used the buyback & resell service in 28 stores, giving 430,000 items – almost twice as many as in 2022 – a second life, according to the group's sustainability report for 2023.
This momentum is now to be increased with the help of digital retailing for used products. "This has been a dream in the making for a while. We're in a place in Ikea where we can do more advanced and cool stuff,” Brodin told the Financial Times, stressing the importance of this step.
On Ikea Preowned, sellers post their own photos of their unwanted furniture along with their asking price. Ikea's AI-enabled database then adds in promotional images, product dimensions and other relevant information. Purchased goods are collected directly from the seller by the buyer. At the test launch on Monday, over 450 items were already listed on the platform in Madrid.
"Ten per cent of the used furniture market consists of Ikea products”
"The global second-hand furniture market is growing rapidly, with a projected annual growth rate of 6.4 percent in 2024,” Brodin is quoted as saying in a recent press release from the Ingka Group, adding that "today, ten per cent of the second-hand home furnishing market is made up of IKEA products.”
In light of this, Ikea’s second-hand platform is expected to rival eBay, Gumtree and Norwegian classifieds service Finn, which currently lists around 8,700 Ikea items in Oslo alone. The economics of the project will be closely examined, the Ingka boss told the Financial Times, expressing confidence in the economic viability of the second-hand marketplace. What’s more, this service is an important opportunity to reconnect with customers, according to Mr Brodin.
Ambitious circular economy targets for 2030
Last but not least, the idea to launch a digital marketplace for second-hand items is also in line with the company’s goal "to become a circular business by 2030”. The company’s sustainability report sets out ambitious goals on the path towards circularity. For example, all products are to be designed from the outset with circularity in mind, meaning they will have to be suitable for being reused, repaired, refurbished and ultimately recycled.
To help achieve this, a dedicated Circular Product Design Guide has been created that contains concrete criteria for future product developments and can also be used to evaluate the product range with a view to modifying existing items where necessary. Recent company reports put the share of renewable and recycled material in Ikea furniture and accessories at 56 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
The sustainability report also details an almost 50 percent reduction in plastic packaging since 2021, with the company planning to phase out single-use plastic in packaging for consumer goods by 2028. As part of a systematic approach to waste management, nine out of 21 Ikea production sites also managed to achieve zero-waste to landfill last year.
