One man’s trash…
Is there an undiscovered market for second-hand furniture hidden in plain sight?
At first glance, Ikea’s plans to sell pre-used furniture at its stores seem confusing. The Swedish giant is famous worldwide for its stylish, yet affordable, pre-assembled furniture — why enter the second-hand game too?
We wondered if there was more going on here than met the eye — so we looked for our UK users, or bees, to shed some light on the subject. Here’s what they told us.
…is another man’s treasure?
The first thing to know is that there’s a wide gulf in attitudes between those who regularly buy second-hand items of any description (about 2 in 5 of our bees), and those who rarely or never do (about 1 in 5).
Of our regular bargain hunters, we found that well over half of them — 57% — would be happy to buy second-hand furniture, and only 4% would never do so.
In contrast, those who rarely or never buy second-hand are much less keen on pre-used furniture. Only around 1 in 3 (35%) would ever be interested, while a comparatively huge 20% would never buy it.
Why not? Well, this group basically thinks the idea of second-hand furniture is — well — a bit icky, while it also worries about the quality:
“I don’t think anything would convince me (to buy). Materials harbour germs. Maybe I would get a wardrobe,” said a female bee, 26.
Sofa, so good?
OK, so people have different attitudes towards buying what once belonged to someone else. Where does Ikea come in to this?
Well, when we looked at where those who regularly purchase second-hand items would look for furniture, the fog began to lift. This group is happy to hunt around most kinds of places, but the most popular of all is charity shops, where over 1 in 3 of our bees would go:
However, the picture is completely different for our group of sceptics, who are much less sold on the benefits of charity shops. Indeed, the only places they might really try and pick up items are either specialist stores, or a big homeware chain that has a solid brand-name and well-known standards…
“I would buy furniture if it was nearly new, they provided delivery and I could see the item before I bought it,” said one female, 29.
“I’d buy if it was sold by a company I trust that had ensured it came without any faults or anything undisclosed,” said another, 35.
So it looks like Ikea has found a sweet spot — a group of people who don’t usually buy reused items, but could potentially be persuaded with the help of a brand name and a guarantee of quality. And ultimately, it’s this segment of shoppers — who aren’t likely to be browsing ebay or charity shops for bargains — that will likely be in Ikea anyway.
Win-win?
The other factor playing a part here? The ongoing trend towards environmentalism and being eco-friendly — something Ikea is already clearly well aware of.
After saving money, being environmentally sustainable is the biggest reason why our bees choose to buy pre-used items:
And when it comes to what they’d buy, furniture is high up the list of our bees wants — clearly indicating the importance for Ikea of being ahead of this trend, rather than behind it:
So it seems likely to us that Ikea’s decision is pretty smart — not just from a saving-the-planet viewpoint, but also from a market outlook too. But are there other opportunities out there that a smart retailer could also investigate?
Well, the area within the second-hand space that people are terrified of, it turns out, is consumer electronics, like tablets and smartphones — mainly because of concerns about guarantees, warranties, and lastability:
So: is there an opportunity for a brand to take the lead in the second-hand electronics space? There’d be big concerns to overcome — but perhaps Ikea’s leap forward is a signpost of what could be achieved elsewhere.
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A quick word on our methodology: The figures in the article are taken from Streetbees community members in the UK, carried out in Feb 2019. All of the data was collected by mobile and web surveys, and is accurate to within 3 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Want to play around with the data yourself? The dashboard is here: use the username preloved@streetbees.com, password: secondhand.
