Ikea, the Swedish home furnishings giant, ventured into secondhand retail last summer to make its flat-packed, versatile furniture more accessible to shoppers.
Five months in, the experiment has proved successful for Ikea, which plans to roll out Ikea Preowned to more markets in Europe and beyond.
“It works—people like it,” Jesper Brodin, the CEO of Ikea’s main operator Ingka Group, told the Financial Times. “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.”
Ikea’s secondhand platform was part of a broader push to make home furnishing more affordable. The privately owned company slashed prices multiple times amid high inflation to help its cash-strapped customers.
Similarly, pre-owned goods sold at a lower price tag were an easy sell given Ikea’s reputation for durability. A few months into the pilot program, Tolga Oncu, Ingka Group’s retail manager (COO) told Fortune that there was “high demand” to make secondhand goods available in more markets.
“The big advantage, of course, is if we have it on our own platform, we can also support customers…and make it much easier for consumers to exchange their Ikea furniture and products with each other,” he said in October.
The timing couldn’t be better for Ikea, as shoppers, particularly Gen Z, flock to secondhand alternatives. Platforms ranging from Vinted to Vestiaire Collective have seen a growing market for pre-owned goods, often more affordable than buying the same thing off store racks.
High-street retailers like Zara and H&M have also opened up similar avenues in a handful of markets, normalizing the market for secondhand retail.
“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 said.
However, the CEO conceded that Ikea’s challenge will be scaling up responsibly. The company is in 63 markets, each with different macroeconomic conditions, rates of digital penetration, and furniture items for sale.
Sellers on Ikea’s secondhand platform will provide information on the product's condition and offer a price, while the company’s own database will support the listing with measurements, manuals, and original product images. The final step involves customers coordinating with the sellers to pick up the furniture.
This could prove tricky in different cities. If Ikea Preowned is anything like Facebook Marketplace, its services could be more popular in the bigger cities than in the smaller ones.
However, if Ikea succeeds in expanding its secondhand operation, it could make furniture shopping more affordable and environmentally friendly. For those specifically hunting Ikea goods, the platform will make it easier than navigating thousands of listings on Gumtree and eBay.
The Swedish company plans to slash emissions by half in its value chain by 2030. As part of that effort, its products can be repaired at Ikea stores or bought back.
Brodin said the marketplace is free to use on its limited scale today, but Ikea might charge a small “symbolic fee” in the future to support its operations.
Ikea has been working on a secondhand marketplace for a long time, even though it launched in August. Despite the challenges and less than developed market for pre-owned goods, it’s the “smarter” thing to do, according to Brodin.
Ikea didn’t immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.
