Ikea is now testing an online platform in Madrid and Oslo where people can sell their used Ikea furniture to others. The platform, Ikea Preowned, lets users list their furniture with photos and a price, and the actual listings (like this example) look a lot like what you might see on Ikea’s main website. However, buyers and sellers have to agree on a place and time to meet to hand over the furniture.
Right now, sellers have the option to get paid via a bank transfer with no added fees or by receiving an Ikea gift card with an extra 15 percent added to the furniture’s purchase price, per the Ikea Preowned website. You can’t return items that are damaged or aren’t in the condition you might have expected, though you can request a refund, Ikea says.
Making a listing is free, but down the line, there could be “a symbolic fee, a humble fee,” Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (which operates the vast majority of Ikea retail stores), said to the Financial Times.
The test of the marketplace will run until December, Tolga Oncu of the Ingka Group says in a statement to The Verge. “After December we will evaluate and decide on the next steps,” according to Oncu.
Update, August 26th: Added statement from Ingka Group.
