IKEA opens its 1st ever second-hand store to achieve 2030 climate goals

As part of the efforts to achieve its 2030 climate targets, IKEA, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, has opened a pilot second-hand store for IKEA furniture in its home-country Sweden.

After the used furniture is repaired or brushed up in an adjacent repair shop, the new store will sell the items below their initial price, said Jonas Carlehed, the head of sustainability of IKEA Sweden.

The products come from municipal recycling centers in the city, where furniture can be donated by people.

IKEA’s goal is to be circular, by using only sustainable or recycled materials and helping consumers to increase the life of their products, by 2030.

By the same year, it also seeks to eliminate more greenhouse gas emissions than what its supply chain emits, which is caused from the production of raw materials and the usage and disposal of its products by customers.

“We are making a huge readjustment, maybe the biggest IKEA has ever made, and one of the keys to reaching (the targets) is to manage to help our customers prolong the life of their products,” Mr. Carlehed said.

He said the store, which is situated in a recycle and reuse focused shopping mall, will be an experience for IKEA to learn about second-hand business and on how to gain shoppers.
“(The mall) has lots of knowledge of customers’ thoughts on second-hand retail, and of what triggers customers to donate products,” he said.

After six months, IKEA will review the project and determine afterwards whether to roll it out to more markets, he said.

The store is owned by the Ingka Group, which owns most of the IKEA stores and is a strategic partner and franchisee of Inter IKEA, the brand owner.

Earlier this month, Ingka Group said it was bringing out a buy-back initiative to several of its stores in which people will receive vouchers in exchange for their old IKEA furniture that IKEA then recycles, resells or donates.

The COVID-19 necessitated lockdown had pushed the online sales of IKEA to a record high as people stayed indoors and converted their homes into temporary offices and schools.