Ikea Launches Peer-to-Peer Furniture Resale Site

Ikea is coming for eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist with the a new peer-to-peer marketplace called Ikea Preowned. The site, which is the home goods’ giant’s foray into the secondhand market, is currently being tested in Madrid and Oslo, with global rollout slated for later this year.

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Ikea Preowned allows customers to buy and sell used Ikea furniture directly from each other. Sellers can tap into tools such as Ikea’s artificial intelligence-enabled database, which will automatically populate listing details such as measurements and add promotional images.

Sellers on the Ikea Preowned platform can choose to receive cash for their sales or Ikea store credit that includes a 15 percent bonus. Users can list on the site for free, helping Ikea better compete with other online resale sites such as eBay.

“This has been a dream in the making for a while,“ Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ikea parent company Ingka told the Financial Times. “We are in a place in Ikea where we can do more advanced and cool stuff. There is an incredible confidence in the company evolving on digital.“

Ikea Preowned is the latest move toward sustainability for the retailer once criticized for selling “fast furniture.” The company recently outlined a number of goals to reduce its environmental impact , including becoming “circular and climate positive” by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.

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Prior to launching Ikea Preowned, the company added a “Buy Back & Resell” program in its stores with the aim to extend the life cycle of its products. In April, Ikea launched a collection of home goods and bags made of fabric constructed of fibers from recycled employee uniforms. And last year, Ikea joined the CanopyStyle initiative, committing to source viscose from home textiles only from forest-friendly suppliers.

And with Ikea Preowned, the home goods giant looks to tap into a secondhand market that has exploded over the last decade. According to recent data from Statista, consumer spending on used furniture and home goods in the U.S. increased by more than $2 billion in 2020, and since 2015, the market for secondhand home goods and furnishings has grown by more than 50 percent. Statista estimates consumer spending on resale goods in the home category will balloon to nearly $24 billion by 2025.

Brodin told the Financial Times that he sees Ikea Preowned as a way to re-engage customers, particularly by offering payment via store vouchers.

“If a lot of people use the offer to get a discount with Ikea, it’s a good way to reconnect with customers,” he said.

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