IKEA considers launching a marketplace

IKEA is considering launching its own marketplace to sell their own products and other company’s goods. This new marketplace would sell products from IKEA and other retailers. It will not be limited to furniture but will also offer a range of home-related products such as art and DIY.

It is already known that IKEA has been testing selling on marketplaces such as Alibaba and Amazon. Now that these tests are slowly coming to an end, IKEA is looking for other options to sell via marketplaces. The Swedish furniture giant would like to partner with other furniture sellers to develop the marketplace that they wish to launch within the next five to ten years. IKEA currently isn't negotiating with any of their rivals, but they’re keen to be involved in setting up an industry-wide sales platform.

IKEA sees an increasing competition now that Amazon launched its own Scandinavian-inspired furniture brand Movian. Despite the design similarity of both Scandinavian brands, IKEA differentiates itself from the competition with some of the concepts they’re currently testing (e. g. furniture lease, city-centre shops, home assembly, new selling channels).

Torbjorn Loof says the following about the subject: “What are the opportunities between the dominating, big, global platforms, and the company website? I think there are tons of opportunities. Like Zalando: they’re a kind of platform for fashion and clothes. I think it’s a very interesting area to explore. You like to control your own destiny, so in that sense, if you have the size and the possibility, that’s true. I think in the next five to ten years, we will see what we now call the platform developing."