Have you ever wanted to own a slightly used piece of furniture from Ikea? Historically we've called those items “garbage,” but now the furniture maker is hoping to that its new peer-to-peer platform for buying and selling second hand furniture will breathe new life into your Ikea coffee table.
“Ikea Preowned” marks the company's entry into the peer-to-peer secondhand market and positions it as a direct competitor to resale marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, Kaiyo, and OfferUp.
Here's how it works:
- Sellers list their furniture by uploading photos and setting a price.
- Ikea's AI automatically adds promotional images and measurements to enhance the listing.
- Buyers collect items directly from sellers.
- Sellers can choose to receive payment in their local currency or an Ikea voucher with a 15% bonus (or get paid in meatballs, LOL).
- It's not yet clear how much of a commission or transaction fee Ikea takes from the purchases.
The move aligns with Ikea's sustainability goals as it aims to become “circular and climate positive” by 2030.
Karen Pflug, chief sustainability officer at Ingka Group (Ikea's largest franchise retailer), said, “Don't think because we've got low prices that we're throw-away-able.”
The preowned platform is currently being tested in Madrid and Oslo, with plans for a global rollout by the end of the year.
Ikea also offers a Buy Back & Resell program that it launched in 2021, where the company itself pays for your furniture and then resells the products as-is in their store, as well as a spare parts program where the company will ship you screws, knobs, or hinges at no cost to extend the life of your furniture.
I joked in the intro about used Ikea furniture historically being called “garbage” — but in all sincerity, I applaud the company's sustainability efforts and hope to see more programs like this from retailers in the future.