Furniture retailer Ikea plans to launch a marketplace where customers can sell their pre-owned Ikea furniture to other consumers. By doing that, it desires to expand its online revenue. The corporate launched a pilot in Spain and Norway.
The Swedish retailer is well-known for its furniture. Inside several countries in Europe, Ikea is the leader in the web furniture market. In an effort to strengthen its online presence, the corporate has now announced that it plans to open a second-hand online marketplace, called Ikea Preowned.
Customer to customer
Ikea Preowned can be a c2c marketplace, meaning that customers sell on to other customers. Customers can upload a product, with their very own price and photos. With AI, the platform adds promoting images and proper dimensions of the product, in addition to assembly guies and care instructions.
‘Buyers will need to select up products at the vendor’s address’
The platform will enable the sale of those products and never tackle the logistics. Buyers will need to select up the product at the vendor’s address. Sellers will either receive payment or an Ikea voucher with a 15 percent discount. For now, listing products on the marketplace is free. In the longer term, Ikea could charge a fee.
‘Testing until December’
A pilot for Ikea Preowned began this summer in Oslo and Madrid. “The test will go on until December and through this time, we can be constantly interacting with users to know customers’ behaviors and interests towards a digital second-hand marketplace, in addition to what it could mean for us from a business perspective,” says Jesper Brodin, CEO at Ingka Group, the most important Ikea retailer. “After December we are going to evaluate and judge on the following steps.”
‘Already 10% of the second-hand home furnishing market is made up by Ikea products’
“The worldwide second-hand furniture market is growing rapidly, with a projected annual growth rate of 6.4 percent in 2024. Already today, 10 percent of the second-hand home furnishing market is made up by IKEA products. With this platform we see possibilities to simplify and enhance experience for each sellers and buyers,” Brodin adds.
