IKEA has made an understatedentry into the blockchain realm by conducting a transaction with a retailer on theEthereum blockchain.
Tradeshift – a cloud-based digital B2B spend managementplatform, alongside Monerium, an eMoney provider for blockchains, said they hadsuccessfully completed a transaction marking a ‘major step forward in businesspayments and finance’.
Recently, Tradeshift’s platform was used by Icelandicretailer Nordic Store on Ethereum to purchase goods from IKEA Iceland. Thistransaction was settled through an e-invoice with Monerium’s programmabledigital cash.
Gert Sylvest, co-founder of Tradeshift and GM ofTradeshift Frontiers, a digital incubation unit, said: “Programmable moneyregulated by governments will become the foundation for e-commerce payments becausethey enable so called ‘smart contracts.’ Smart contracts have many use cases.For example they can be used to generate ‘Smart Invoices’, which are invoicesthat basically settle themselves.”
‘Smart invoices’ can be said to deliver short-termcredit to small and large companies automatically.
Stefan Arnason, CFO of IKEA Iceland, said: “Aprogrammable financial supply chain, where trading partners can connectinformation flows to money flows through smart contracts, will transform how suppliersand customers interact.”
Meanwhile, IKEA is planning to make an even bigger bet in the smart home space with a new dedicated business unit and increased investment. Following the launch of smart home lighting in 2017, the company has been expanding its offerings and has partnered with Sonos to launch whole-home audio solutions. It is also now launching a new ‘IKEA Home Smart’ business unit to help develop new devices to push to the 780 million shoppers who visit the retailer each year.
