Last Saturday, IKEA launched a new site to sell second-hand IKEA furniture to customers in Sweden—a concept the company intends to expand into other markets.
The initiative supports the company's efforts to show itself as a leader in environmental awareness.
"It is about taking an environmental responsibility for how our products are used in the longer term and making it easier for our customers to do their part for their responsibility towards the environment," said Peter Agnefäll, CEO of IKEA Sverige.
It has been suggested that the move is an effort to shut down Iloveikea.se (now billyandfriends.se due to a court order), a web site devoted to used IKEA goods, however Agnefäll repudiated this suggestion.
In addition, he noted that it will not result in any major revenue for IKEA, and at the same time saw no risk in new sales becoming adversely affected with the venture.