IKEA
Stores transformed into an entry point for the circular economy. There is a lot of demand, products disappear.
It was practically a year and a half ago that the IKEA which would launch Preowned, a used furniture buying and selling platform. Products in second hand.
Pilot tests in Oslo and Madrid went well. Last year, the digital platform . Customers can buy and sell second-hand items from the Swedish giant.
IKEA chose Portugal as the first market where the service was available nationwide from the beginning.
Until now, it’s going well. IKEA’s bet on reselling used products is gaining scale — and transforming the traditional items with minor defects, display or returns section of stores in the US into an entry point into the circular economy.
The demand is constant. You products disappear quicklyincluding “vintage” furniture that is already decades old, describes the magazine.
More recently, they began to enter even older products; The program awards store credit to customers who return used items and puts them back on sale to other consumers.
Launched as a pilot in the USA five years ago, the model has been expanding and is presented as a still rare initiative among large furniture retailers; The idea remains that there is a growing market for alternatives to exclusively “new” consumption.
There is a double logic in this strategy: reduce waste and, at the same time, have lower prices for a more price-sensitive audience.
IKEA also prefers recover products instead of ending up in a landfill.
O growth You can see it in the numbers: in 2025, customers returned 14,700 products, compared to 8,000 in 2023.
Most of these second-hand products are returned to sold two or three days later.
Signs of fast rotation and of a consistent search for discounted opportunities.
And resale is not, at least for now, “taking the place” of sales of new products – but it will be bringing new customers to stores, increasing the total number of customers.
Furthermore, those who participate in the program to return used products tend to later spend more than what is in the voucher they received.
