Why also IKEA is committing to second-hand market Starting with the sale of spare parts for your furniture

The low-cost furniture giant Ikea has recently announced that it will start selling spare parts for furniture and furnishing accessories, in a broader attempt to make its products sustainable and to become, in the long term, a circular company. This is an absolute novelty for the Swedish brand, which until now did not allow the repair of its products, but only offered the possibility of buying them back in their entirety. During the year, an online sales system will be introduced where it will be possible to purchase individual parts of larger structures, such as sofa legs, bolts, etc. 

Alongside this initiative, Ikea is carrying other projects always aimed at sustainability. Last year, for example, it started buying back some used furniture, in exchange for a discount voucher for customers. If they cannot be resold, used furniture will be recycled. Although these programs are still in the testing phase, by 2030 Ikea plans to become a completely circular company, ensuring that each of its products can be reused, repaired or recycled. To achieve this, it will be necessary to rethink not only the quantities in which the brand's products are produced but above all the materials that are used. As the Financial Times revealed on Monday, the company currently uses 98% wood from certified sources for environmental sustainability or recycling. Within ten years, the equation should predict at least one-third of recycled wood. 

To try to escape the accusations of green-washing, brands will not only need to change language and to rebuild their supply chain, but it will be crucial to create a unique experience for the final consumer, which does not end at the time of purchase, but that begins precisely there. The consumer must be encouraged and invited to continually return to the brand, bringing back what he has already used, buying only a small part he needs, deciding to invest in a product that has already been used but recovered, establishing a solid relationship, in which the brand supplies to the customer everything he needs, from both a practical and ideological point of view.