CharityComms

Oxfam’s Online Shop bucks retail trend with impressive first-year performance

Oxfam’s groundbreaking online shop has raised £5 million in its first year. The online Oxfam shop sells goods donated to Oxfam shops, as well as a range of new products and gifts from Oxfam’s Unwrapped alternative gifts catalogue.

With 100,000 listings on site at the moment, the shop attracts more than 30,000 shoppers per week. People looking to buy one-off donated garments and a host of rare treasures can browse from the comfort of their own homes.

In its first year of trading, the online shop has sold:

3,400 women's tops, from Abercrombie to Armani
3,000 women's dresses and skirts, from White Stuff to Whistles
4,000 books and CDs
1,200 bags (Radley, D&G).

The shop launched in 2007 with online-savvy staff from 30 of Oxfam’s 750 shops uploading donated items to the website. The shop now sources from 50 Oxfam shops, with a target of getting 100 shops involved in 2009, increasing the amount of items available online from 100,000 to 250,000.

Individual bargains snapped up so far include:

Amitabh Bachchan's personally donated Armani jeans - £1,000
Alfred Angelo wedding dress - £145
1st Edition of George Orwell book 1984 £500
1960s Sambos Dollyrockers, mini dress - £125
Mulberry Bretton bag - £225.

David McCullough, Oxfam’s director of trading, said:
”The online shop has raised a fantastic amount for Oxfam so far, but we have huge ambitions for its future, as the number one ethical shopping destination online. Shoppers can hunt down bargains and one-off treasures from the biggest charity shop stock ever assembled, quickly and conveniently in just a few clicks.”

Online sales are expected to account for more that half of Britain’s retail growth by 2012. The rise of ethical trading and online sales has combined to make this an increasingly important part of Oxfam’s funding.

The £5 million raised in the first year of the online shop’s existence would be enough to provide school dinners for more than 80 million children, safe water for almost 7 million people, or buy 200,000 goats, 150,000 emergency shelters or train more than 130,000 health workers.

Visit Oxfam’s Online Shop at www.oxfam.org.uk/shop.