Sweden-based retailer IKEA has announced the launch of a peer-to-peer marketplace, IKEA Preowned, in Madrid and Oslo for second-hand furniture sales. IKEA will take on the likes of eBay, Craigslist, and Gumtree with a peer-to-peer marketplace for customers to sell second-hand furniture to each other.

IKEA Preowned will be tested in Madrid and Oslo until the end of 2024 with the aim of rolling out the buying and selling platform globally. The new marketplace is part of a transformation at IKEA over the past few years as it moves from being an out-of-town retailer where customers have to pick up and build their own furniture to a business offering online sales, city-centre stores and services such as assembly. An ambitious platform for direct second-hand furniture sales IKEA has had a small offering under which it buys used furniture from customers and resells it in store.

But the new platform is more ambitious, aiming to tackle the second-hand market for customers selling directly to each other – an area where the company estimates it has a higher market share than in new furniture sales. Customers enter their product, their own pictures and a selling price while IKEA’s own artificial intelligence-enabled database brings in its own promotional images and measurements. The buyer collects the furniture directly from the seller, who has the option of receiving money or a voucher from IKEA with a 15% bonus.

Listings are free, but IKEA could eventually charge a small, symbolic fee, according to company officials. IKEA has previously tested selling its new furniture on third-party platforms such as Alibaba’s Tmall in China, but the Preowned platform marks its first foray into second-hand marketplaces. It also dovetails with the retailer’s wish to become 'circular and climate positive' by 2030.

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