Ikea to roll out second-hand marketplace across Europe

After successful pilot projects in Oslo and Madrid, IKEA is going to roll out its second-hand platform Europe-wide. In doing so, the home furnishing chain wants to compete with players like eBay or Depop.

First Spain and Norway

IKEA customers have already been able to return their old furniture to the shop in exchange for a voucher of up to 50 % of the original price for several years. The second-hand items are then resold in the ‘second chance corner’. Since August, the chain has been testing something completely different in Oslo and Madrid: on the ‘IKEA Preowned’ marketplace, customers can sell second-hand products to each other – just like on Vinted or eBay, for example.

This so-called peer-to-peer platform appears to be catching on: “We have decided to expand it from Madrid to Spain, and from Oslo to Norway. In a couple of years, we want to scale it up to all markets in Europe“, CEO Jesper Brodin of Ingka (Ikea’s largest franchisee) explains to the Financial Times.

“A movement in society”

While not giving financial details, the CEO pointed to high customer engagement: “Sometimes you have to go with the gut. This is a market and a movement in society, and if we would stay outside we couldn’t take part in it.” Brodin says IKEA has already taken several initiatives to make its offer more sustainable, but “only with Preowned have we found the value to compete with eBay or Depop.”

The platform works like many other second-hand marketplaces: users upload their own photos of their furniture or interior decorations and set the selling price. IKEA adds additional information such as dimensions and the original price via AI. The platform also guarantees buyer protection. Sellers can be paid by bank transfer or voucher: in that case, IKEA adds another 15 % to the sale price.