Ikea buys back its old furniture for store credit
Ikea is turning its buy back and resell pilot into a permanent thing.
The Swedish furniture and home goods giant tested the program in 33 stores across the U.S. from Nov. 1 through Dec. 5, 2021. Ikea is now offering the service on a permanent basis in the pilot stores, along with four additional locations: College Park, Md.; Carson, Calif.; Centennial, Colo.; and Brooklyn, N.Y.
The program offers consumers the chance to sell their “gently used” Ikea furniture back to the retailer in exchange for store credit. Here’s how it works:
To participate, customers must fill out the buy back and resell form on Ikea’s website in order to receive an emailed quote of the buy back value. They then bring a copy of the quote, buyback number and the furniture (all items must be fully assembled) to a participating IKEA store where an employee will assess the item’s buy-back value in person.
Customers will receive store credit for the used furniture, which is given a second life of sorts in the “As-Is” department of the store.
Ikea, which has 375 stores in 30 countries, including 52 U.S. locations, already operates buyback programs at its stores in many other countries. The retailer said the program is part of its commitment to transform its business model — from furniture to food, home delivery to assembly, and product design to investments — to be circular and climate positive by 2030. Among other initiatives, Ikea remains committed to designing all products to be 100% circular from the beginning and aims to use only renewable or recycled materials by adapting and finding new sources or developing new materials.
As part of Earth Month (an expansion of the April 22 Earth day), Ikea is highlighting local actions, such as its buy back service. Other examples include the outfitting of nearly all stores with a rooftop solar array, along with other features such as EV chargers, LED lighting, geothermal systems, fuel cells, solar car parks and EV yard trucks.
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