IKEA Preowned Is Finally Here, and Shoppers Who Love to Thrift Are So Happy About It

If you love shopping on Facebook Marketplace for preloved IKEA finds you can hack to fit your own space, then you’re going to absolutely love the news about IKEA Preowned. The beloved retailer has finally launched its own IKEA Preowned furniture marketplace, and people in Madrid and Oslo are now able to sell and buy their secondhand IKEA finds online. 

If all goes well, IKEA hopes to make the online marketplace global at the end of 2024, and if you’ve ever wanted a viral IKEA product (looking at you, donut lamp) that sold out before you were able to buy it, IKEA Preowned will hopefully make the shopping experience a whole lot easier.

According to its site, IKEA Preowned is part of a larger effort by the brand to transition into a circular business, with services that include buying back products that customers no longer need, providing assembly parts, investing in companies that recycle mattresses, and advocating for the promotion of a circular economy. (A circular economy is one that keeps materials and products in circulation for as long as possible, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, meaning that objects, materials, and resources keep their value and stay in use for as long as each can, helping to eliminate — and reduce — waste.)

IKEA Preowned is one facet of this larger initiative, and it’ll help keep IKEA furniture out of landfills by placing those preowned pieces back into new homes, “reducing waste and prolonging the life” of IKEA products. 

Here’s everything we know about the secondhand shopping experience so far.

Unlike other IKEA brick-and-mortar stores, buying on IKEA Preowned works in the same way as other secondhand shops do. (If you’ve ever shopped on Etsy, the experience is very similar.) 

First, you add the items to your cart and check out. According to the Preowned site, buyers then arrange a time and place to meet with the seller to pick up the item. (Right now, the only buying option available for would-be buyers on IKEA Preowned is to pick up locally in Madrid.) If for whatever reason the item doesn’t work out or isn’t up to the standards included in the listing, you can cancel the order for a full refund. 

IKEA Preowned also has an FAQ section on its site for potential buyers to look through to help understand the new shopping experience.

The IKEA Preowned site promise that you can list a preowned item “in just a few clicks,” and once it sells you’ll arrange to meet the new buyer. IKEA will even support sellers by recommending a listing price based on the item’s condition and its original value; it’s up to the seller to decide.

Once the purchase has been completed, sellers will have the option to turn their profit into either a bank transfer directly into their account or an IKEA gift card that includes an extra 15% off your next IKEA purchase. 

And the FAQ section on IKEA Preowned includes tons of information on selling best practices.

The BBC reported that IKEA Preowned is already available in Madrid and Oslo, where buyers and sellers are able to list and buy online.

There’s no official word yet on when (or even if!) IKEA Preowned will make it out of this testing phase, and it sounds like there is a lot riding on how well things go at the IKEA Preowned locations in both Madrid and Oslo. 

According to Fast Company, the company will closely monitor the shopping performance and experience as well as customer feedback before deciding on an official global rollout. As it stands, the BBC reported that IKEA does plan to roll out the site globally in December of 2024. 

For now, eager U.S. buyers and sellers will just have to wait and see (with fingers crossed!).