Ikea is betting on the second-hand market. The Swedish giant is following in Wallapop’s footsteps with the launch of Used Ikea, a platform where customers can sell used furniture to each other.
The new service will be tested first in Madrid and Oslo until the end of the year with the goal of deploying the buying and selling platform on a global scaleas detailed by Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka, the main operator of Ikea stores, in an interview with Financial time.
Ingka’s CEO stressed that “this was a dream that we have been fulfilling for some time.” Likewise, he stressed that “There is incredible confidence that the business will move towards digital.”
Ikea had a small deal where they bought used furniture from their customers and resold it in the store. However, Ikea preowned aims to address the second-hand market for customers who sell directly.
The new platform works in the same way as others that have been established on the market for some time, such as Wallapop. In other words, the customer himself enters the product he wants to sell with his own photographs and a sale price, while the Ikea database, based on artificial intelligence, provides its own images and promotional measures.
However, the buyer collects the furniture directly from the seller, who has the option of receiving cash or an Ikea voucher with it. a 15% bonus.
It is worth recalling that the company had already experimented with selling its new furniture on third-party platforms such as Alibaba’s Tmall in China.
This new service is part of the company’s strategy to continue diversifying its activities after moving from offering services in stores on the outskirts of large cities to opening in their centers and strengthening its market. online.
