The British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, Cancer Research UK, and Scope are scaling back their retail footprints as store profitability contracts sharply. Brick-and-mortar locations are grappling with high overheads for rent and storage alongside an influx of unsellable fast fashion. Financial strains have been further exacerbated by inflationary trends and higher national insurance taxes on part-time workers implemented in the November 2024 budget. Despite these headwinds, industry advocates note that online resale channels still drive some traffic via buyers who purchase physical shop inventory to resell online.
Key points
Direct consumer-to-consumer digital platforms like Vinted and Depop are diverting valuabl…: Direct consumer-to-consumer digital platforms like Vinted and Depop are diverting valuable clothing donations away from charity retailers.
Traditional high street charity locations are burdened with steep overhead expenses along…: Traditional high street charity locations are burdened with steep overhead expenses alongside an influx of difficult-to-sell fast fashion garments.
Recent changes to employer national insurance contributions have raised the operational c…: Recent changes to employer national insurance contributions have raised the operational cost of employing part-time shop workers across the sector.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
Profits at some of the UK’s best-known charity shops have plummeted as they face a number of pressures, including from online secondhand clothes platforms, prompting claims that a key part of the sector’s fundraising model could be under threat.
According to unpublished accounts seen by the Financial Times, Oxfam’s retail profit fell 23% to £4.9m in the last financial year, compared with £6.4m in the previous year.
The British Heart Foundation (BHF), which has the biggest high street presence of any charity in the country, has announced plans to close 150 stores after they made a loss in the last financial year. Cancer Research UK and Scope have also closed, or are closing, some of their shops.
But these losses come despite UK spending on secondhand clothing having quadrupled over the past decade, rising to £8.8bn a year, according to GlobalData.
The shift has come alongside the rise of websites such as Vinted and Depop, suggesting that people who might previously have donated clothes to charity shops are instead selling them directly to other consumers and profiting themselves.
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