Oct 09 2022

Future proofing your retail business

We are living in unprecedented challenging economic times with most of the economic pressure coming from external sources. The cost pressures for everyone and especially charities is considerable with most being very concerned if their unrestricted income from retail will be secure in the future. To future proof a charity retail business there are a[…]

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Oct 09 2022

Reviewing your Retail Business

Charities should review their retail businesses every 5 years as best practice as the starting point for writing a retail strategy. This charity retail review can be carried out internally or by an external company, but if carried out internally we strongly recommend some external or independent verification by a charity retail expert, because the[…]

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Oct 09 2022

Charity Retail future Second-hand clothing insight

Charity Retail future Second-hand clothing insight With second-hand clothing as the key category within charity retail shops, more are now being sold online. Recently there has been research which indicates that this key category is about to see considerable growth. There are a range of different predictions about the second-hand or resale clothing market, based[…]

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Jan 24 2022

The Retail Strategy 2022 Checklist

After the strains of 2020 and 2021 most people are looking forward hopefully to some normality in 2022 but the landscape will inevitably be quite different to life before 2020. Our blog ‘The perfect storm’ sets out clearly the reasons why the economic landscape is changing. Most Charity Retailers have updated their retail strategies since[…]

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Nov 17 2021

The 2022 Perfect Storm

Is your charity retail business resilient enough for what’s approaching? In early-November, I spoke at the Hospice UK National Conference and was fortunate enough to share many insightful conversations with CEOs and Finance Directors about the year they’ve had and their thoughts about 2022. The good news is that the sales figures achieved throughout charity[…]

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Sep 15 2021

Are Retail Vacancies Holding Your Charity Back?

The Office for National Statistics has revealed that the number of job vacancies rose by 290,000 between May and July from the previous three-month period, to 953,000. That’s the highest level since records were started. Whilst haulage and other driving vacancies seen to be getting a lot of the publicity, they are far from the[…]

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Aug 24 2021

Charity Retail – The Superstore Race

The Olympics might be over but there is another race that’s starting to seriously heat up. It’s official – when it comes to Charity Retail, the ‘Superstore Race’ is in full swing! Everyone knows within real estate, business, commercial retail, and charity retail it is all about Location, Location, Location! But it used to be[…]

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Apr 11 2021

Let’s Talk Data

Economic downturns and uncertainty can be a time of considerable concern that make businesses batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to pass. Only when clearer skies are forecasted would they attempt to change accordingly. However, the most successful businesses will, irrespective of any downturn or uncertainty, consistently look inwards and, where necessary,[…]

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Jun 29 2020

Donation Collection Points

Throughout the Charity sector discussions on the expected levels of donations being offered following the lockdown period has been a concern for many. The population have been asked to stay at home and during this time will have been tidying their houses and collating large quantities of unwanted items which they expect to donate to[…]

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Jun 15 2020

COVID 19 Update

When Charity shops reopen in June is your donation strategy good enough? All charities should be planning their donation strategy because as soon as charity shops reopen the donation flow is going to be vastly different to anything experienced within charity retail previously. I will expect every charity will have carried out the required detailed[…]

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