Ikea launches Ikea Preowned in Spain, its new platform to buy and sell second-hand products from the Swedish brand to give them a second life, with which it challenges platforms such as eBay, Vinted or Wallapop. The cities chosen to test the platform until the end of the year are Madrid and Oslo. After the tests carried out in these countries, the objective is to extend it to all the countries where the Swedish multinational is present.
Ikea Preowned aims to address the second-hand market so that customers can sell directly to each other. The Swedish multinational ensures that this initiative is part of a set of efforts it is making to reduce the use of resources and the transition to a circular business.
The CEO of Ingka, the main operator of Ikea stores, Jesper Brodin, welcomed the launch of this initiative, according to what he told the English newspaper ‘Financial Times’ reported by Europa Press. “This was a dream that we wanted to realize for a long time. We are in an era where we can do more advanced and cooler things. There is incredible confidence in the digital evolution of the company,” he stressed.
For the Ingka Group, this involves offering services to customers such as buying back products that are no longer needed, providing assembly parts, investing in companies such as RetourMatras, which recycles mattresses into materials for new mattresses, and advocating for positive influence on the private sector and governments to promote the transition to a circular economy.
So, the new platform for selling second-hand furniture, like buying on Ikea.com, searches for items close to the customer, agrees on a price and a collection point between the buyer and the seller.
