Online charity shop sales surge despite footfall challenges

Charity shops reported strong online sales in April-June 2024, with online income up by 21.2% compared to the previous year, our latest Quarterly Market Analysis (QMA) report shows.

The CRA’s latest QMA report shows that 80% of charities who responded to the survey now sell online, with charity shops able to boost revenue through digital platforms to counteract low high street footfall earlier this year.

A slow start to summer affected lots of charity shops in these months, with 64% of respondents reporting that bad weather negatively affected their income. However, charities counteracted this by focusing on driving sales through their online shops, as well as platforms such as eBay and Vinted, and holding events such as Kilo Sales and sustainable fashion events to encourage customers into store.

Charities also reported consistently high volumes of donations in April-June 2024, although many also reported ongoing challenges with the quality of some of the donations received. 54% of respondents reported that the volume of donations they received had a positive impact on income during this period, whilst 42% of respondents reported that the quality of donations had a negative impact on income.

Overall, total retail income for the charity retail sector grew by 0.7% in April-June 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Donated goods made up 79.7% of all in-store income in April-June 2024, with clothing and accessories accounting for 65.9% of donated goods sales in general stores, followed by bric-a-brac (12.9%) and books (6%).

CRA members can download a copy of the Quarterly Market Analysis report by logging in here.

05/09/2024 08:08