Voucher for the old Billy shelf: Ikea will buy back used furniture

Anyone who has treated their Ikea furniture with care and still wants to furnish themselves can sell their used shelves, chairs and armchairs back to the Swedish company at the end of November. Instead of cash, however, there is only an Ikea voucher. And a good climate conscience.

Those who are tired of their "Billy" shelves, "Lack" tables or their "Klippan" sofa can return the furniture to Ikea in the coming month. The world's largest furniture company announced that it would buy back well-preserved Ikea furniture between November 24th and December 3rd. Customers received vouchers that they could exchange in the furniture stores without any time limit. The initiative is part of a program with the aim of becoming sustainable and climate-neutral by 2030.

By 2021, Ikea plans to have separate areas in each store where people can sell back their old furniture and find repaired or refurbished furniture. The surrender value depends on the condition of the furniture. According to Ikea, customers with new items without scratches received 50 percent of the original purchase price, 40 percent with minor signs of use and 30 percent with multiple scratches. One catch, however, could be that customers have to return the furniture fully assembled. Ikea also announced that the products that would not be resold would be recycled or donated to charity.

Ikea had already tested the offer in five branches since autumn 2018. According to the company, the experience was positive. That is why it was decided to extend it to all houses. "Our customers are happy to accept the offer, and we have been able to integrate the service well into the process in the furniture stores involved," explained the Ikea management. Most products found a new owner within two days during the test phase. The new service is said to have been particularly well received in Berlin.

No losses in the corona crisis

Despite the closure of many branches, Ikea lost very little sales in the corona crisis. In the financial year from September 2019 to the end of August, Ikea made the equivalent of 39.6 billion euros in sales worldwide, only four percent less than in the previous year with 41.3 billion euros, as the Inter Ikea Group, based in the Netherlands, announced last week. Online sales increased 45 percent year over year.

217,000 people work for Ikea worldwide, and 6,000 new jobs were added in the past financial year. According to the annual report, the number of furniture stores and so-called contact points is over 500. Ikea, founded in Sweden in 1943, is not listed on a stock exchange and is therefore not obliged to publish company figures. The company has been doing this voluntarily since 2010.

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