Second-hand marketplaces such as Vinted and Facebook Marketplace are on the rise, but is their success posing a threat to the future of charity shops?
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In 1899, one of the earliest known charity shops made an appearance on UK high streets. The store, set up by the Wolverhampton Society for the Blind (now called the Beacon Centre for the Blind) made history by creating a shop that would allow the organisation to raise money for charitable causes, whilst selling affordable goods to the local community.

The innovation was a success, and, during World War II, charity shops became a widespread phenomenon as people rushed to buy gifts at an affordable price. The Red Cross opened the doors to its first charity shop in London in 1941 and by the end of the war, over two hundred permanent Red Cross shops were trading across the UK.

Over a century later, second-hand shopping is still very much its prime, but the future of the physical presence of charity shops is under threat.

One of the many reasons is the growing appreciation for online marketplaces, such as Facebook Marketplace and Vinted, which offer buyers second-hand goods at an affordable rate, delivered to their door.

Each week millions of people flock to Vinted to buy and sell pre-loved items in the hope of saving or making bit of extra cash, but what does this mean for the future of charity shops?#

External pressure

Due to the economic pressures placed on charities by the cost-of-living crisis, many charity shops have already been forced to close. Among these is the 13-strong chain of shops owned by Young Lives vs Cancer.

The charity announced last year it would close the charity shops, which are located across the west of England, after a review found the shops generated a net income of £450,000. The charity said it is “a slow return on investment that the charity can achieve through other income-generating activity”.

Meanwhile, Scope has been forced to close a number of its charity shops due to financial pressures. The charity used to have 200 shops listed as part of its chain, but now has 190. The most recent closure took place in Newbury.

“We never take the decision to close our stores lightly, recognising the impact it has on both our store teams, volunteers and our customers,” Ruth Blazye, executive director of retail and communities at Scope says.“However, in certain locations across the UK, some of our stores no longer remain viable to trade, but we always hope we can relocate to another part of the town or nearby if the opportunity presents itself.”Whilst the economic environment has had an impact on charity shops, the likes of Vinted and Facebook Marketplace have been booming. By 2022, Vinted’s revenue for the first nine months of the year was over £200 million – an increase of around 37% on the previous year. The company is now estimated to be worth over £4 billion.

Quantity over quality

The profitability of the likes of Vinted, lies in the user’s ability to search for thousands of brands and items – many of which would be otherwise unaffordable if brought brand new. Users can filter by condition (new with tags, new without tags, very good, good, satisfactory), which makes the user clear of what it is they’re buying and just how ‘pre-loved’ it is. Ryan Perkins, head of trading-retail at St Ann’s Hospice explains that marketplaces like this have meant many charity shops, including St Ann’s Hospice, have found the quality of items being donated has dropped.

“We haven’t seen a major change in the amounts people are donating, but the quality has decreased slightly,” he explains. “I think people may be more aware of the value of their items now, so instead of donating people are looking to sell so that they can make some money back from their items. This has meant that what we’ve been donated is sometimes of less quality than what we have received previously.”Perkins notes that the quantity of furniture donations has declined, too. Primarily due to the presence of Facebook Marketplace, which provides consumers with the ability to sell large items of furniture to people in the local area rapidly.

“We have seen a negative impact on furniture donations through the rise of Facebook Marketplace,” he says. “With with Facebook Marketplace, it is much easier for people to sell an item and have the buyer collect it from them, with the added bonus of making money from this sale, instead of donating it to one of our furniture shops.

“Another thing that we’ve seen is that if people can’t sell a furniture item on Facebook Marketplace, they do then donate it to us, but we find that these can be unsellable for us due to the quality of the furniture not being that great.”

A shared space
While many charities still operate in-store only, some have recognised the power of the marketplace. Cancer Research UK, for example, has its own online shop, as well as an eBay shop, Depop store and ASOS marketplace, where the charity lists around 3,500-4,000 items per week.
“We aim to get the most value we can out of our donations, so where we think a donated item might be better suited for sale on one of our online marketplaces, we’ll take this into account,” Julie Byard, director of trading at Cancer Research UK, says.

The charity first launched the marketplace trial in 2016 from the back room of its Blackburn Superstore, but it quickly outgrew the space due to soaring demand.

“Our operation has grown significantly since that initial trial and now generates around £75,000 income per week,” Byard adds. “We have a dedicated team of skilled individuals now processing, valuing, photographing, listing, packing and shipping, and delivering excellent customer service for over 2,000 orders per week.

“We understood early on that online pre-loved shopping is particularly popular with younger generations, and we wanted to make shopping with us as accessible as possible to all demographics. Reaching a wider audience demographic also includes international sales, giving us the opportunity to further extend awareness of brand and cause. Today, we have 91,000 followers on our eBay shop, 35,000 followers on Depop, and achieve on average 500,000 page views per week.”

Some slightly smaller charities are also operating shops on online marketplaces to help boost sales. St Ann’s Hospice operates an online shop through eBay, which it finds to be both manageable and profitable, as well as selling books through specialist site ABE books too.

However, the team, which once had platforms on Vinted and Depop, decided to step back from alternative platforms after “sales dropped off”. “It is something we are thinking of getting back into as we have heard that the numbers are going back up on these sites, but with a small team we are currently focussing on selling on eBay to make the most sales on there. It is very useful to be able to sell donated items on eBay and we sell books on the specialist site ABE books too,” Perkins says.

Outgrowing ‘fast fashion’

Fortunately for charities, ‘fast fashion’ appears to be in decline – signalling an opportunity for charities to continue profiting from the sale of second-hand items. A report published last year by Brand Finance found a significant increase in sales among companies focusing on conscious consumerism and a decline in sales for the companies selling less eco-friendly products.

For example, high street giant, H&M had seen its brand value drop by 26%, while one of its rivals, Zara, had also seen a decline of 15%. The drop in value for both brands was attributed to their ‘vague communication and a lack of transparency regarding sustainability’.

Charity shops offer a whole new level of sustainability and conscious buying and thus, the gap in the market left by many fashion chains can quite easily be filled by charities – the onus is just on the organisation to put the work in to make people aware of the potential benefits.

Cancer Research UK notes that online retail sales have grown from 3% in 2006 to 25% today, with reports also predicting pre-loved fashion will outgrow fast fashion sales in the UK by 2026.

“Across our eBay shop, Depop shop, and ASOS marketplace store, we’ve seen a 55% growth in income compared to this time last year and we’re excited and ready for the future growth of these platforms,” Byard says.

The Salvation Army and St Ann’s Hospice believe there is an opportunity for charity shops to view online marketplaces as an opportunity, rather than a threat – one that will keep fashion moving in a sustainable cycle.

“We love that more sustainability has been created through these marketplaces and we’ve benefitted from people buying to resell from our shops,” St Ann’s Hospice’s Perkins says. “We encourage this as St Ann’s is still benefitting from getting the price of the sale, so we don’t mind that someone may go on to resell that item.

”Kelly Castelete, head of communications at the Salvation Army agrees. “We believe that second-hand platforms can be an opportunity to drive customers to charity shops who may be looking to resell items on these platforms.

“Also, at some point, those items on Vinted will eventually be handed down or passed on and find themselves being placed in a charity clothing bank or donated to a store.”

“People are realising more and more that reusing items is the best thing to do. We want to encourage more people to think about second-hand fashion and to release the potential value in their wardrobes - whether that’s through reselling or donating items. Recent research shows that the environmental impact of reusing textiles is 70 times lower compared to producing new clothing. Vinted is introducing more people to the idea of second-hand fashion, and that can only be a good thing.”

Whilst online marketplaces may have driven people to alternative platforms for second-hand items, there is clearly still a demand for charity shops to exist within the cycle of buying and selling pre-loved goods. But with the rise of online sales only continuing to increase, charities that operate shops will need to ensure they ramp up their digital presence to make the most of the increase in opportunities available.

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