IKEA has announced that they will not be participating in this year’s Black Friday. Instead, to encourage more sustainable shopping and incentivise customers to give love to already exciting items, the retailer is back with Green Friday.
During IKEA’s Green Friday, the retailer will enhance its exciting Buyback & Resell scheme, where customers can sell back furniture to IKEA. From Friday, 18 November 2022, customers will be able to get an additional 50% off new items when returning used IKEA furniture to a store.
Additionally, this year customers can hand back pre-loved IKEA furniture no matter their age. Previously IKEA would only accept used furniture over 7 years old, but this limitation has been removed to help even more customers to shop more sustainably around the busy shopping period in the lead up to Christmas.
The Buyback & Resell scheme was launched by IKEA 18 months ago ago. Since the start, IKEA has bought back furniture of a value of over £1 million, that's been given back to its customers through gift cards. In total, over 51,000 pieces of furniture in the UK have gotten a new life with an average buyback value of £20.
IKEA Family members selling back their old IKEA items through the Buyback & Resell scheme, will see the additional 50% added to their IKEA refund card to spend in store. Items customers wish to bring back into store must be registered between this time using the Buy back estimator tool, and returned within 30 days of receiving a quote. The easy-to-use tool provides an instant valuation for select furniture pieces from the IKEA ranges, making it much simpler to contribute to the pre-loved economy.
As with all IKEA gift cards, there will be no expiry date on when new purchases need to be made, encouraging people to only buy items when needed. All Buyback & Resell items will be resold as second-hand, in the IKEA circular hubs which can be found in-store. For any items that cannot be sold, IKEA will recycle these products.
As well as the Buyback & Resell initiative which launched last year, the initiative has been extended to the circular hub online, allowing customers to browse and reserve second-hand IKEA items from the comfort of their home for collection from their nearest store; making the process even easier and more accessible.
Michaela Quinlan, Country Commercial Manager, IKEA UK and Ireland, said: “At IKEA, we are continuing to develop circular solutions for our customers, helping them to shop more sustainably and affordably. We know this is a busy time of year for shoppers, but it’s also important we support people to be sustainable all year round. That’s why we have no expiry on our gift cards, so that customers can wait to invest in something they really need.
"The Green Friday offer is just a small part of our wider commitment to become climate positive by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050. It’s also one of the many ways we’re supporting the pre-loved economy and encouraging customers to give their used furniture a second lease of life.”
