OUR IMPACT STORY Social and Environmental Impact Report Financial Year 2020/21
CONTENTS Executive Summary..................................................................4 Our Story........................................................................................7 Business for good...................................................................11 Good for our people..............................................................12 Good for the environment.................................................20 Good for our customers......................................................24 Good for our communities.................................................30 Good for our partners..........................................................34 Business performance overview....................................42 Next chapter..............................................................................44
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY World of Books Group (Wob) has come a long way since we were founded in 2002 – but our mission has never changed. We exist to support charities, protect the planet and make a positive impact in the world. Over the past year, against the backdrop of a pandemic and many major global challenges, this mission has never been more important. Our values are to take responsibility in our work, take action to improve our business and communities and be pioneering, and these values flow through all that we do. Alongside these, sustainability is at the core of what we do, it is a founding pillar of our business and continues to guide the decisions we make. The World of Books Group impact report 2020/21 is a detailed look at how we are living our values and delivering against our mission in practice when it comes to our people, the environment, our customers, our communities and our business.
Our People
Our customers
The business
Having a positive impact starts with our people. When it comes to pay, we are committed to the real living wage. In 2021, almost 90% of our people were paid the real living wage or higher and, whilst we are proud of our progress here, we are working to bring this to 100% of our people.
We wouldn’t be where we are today without our customers. During 2020/21 we responded to over 1.2 million emails and, with the introduction of our new chat bot – Watson, 16,359 live chats, resulting in an overall Trustpilot score of 4.8/5.
As a business, 2020/21 has been a landmark year for us; we passed the £100 million sales mark for the first time (with over £101.4m in sales) and have grown to over 720 employees in the UK and internationally. Wob.com has seen a 128% growth in online sales and 470% growth in the US.
Our focus on pay equality, combined with our focus on training, our new ED&I project and our values-linked reward and recognition scheme has resulted in our lowest ever staff attrition rate in 2021, as well as increases in our employee engagement score and an overall Glassdoor score increase from 3.0 to 4.1.
The environment In 2020/21 our sales of used books was equivalent to saving over 26,000 tonnes of new paper – which is over 449,000 trees! Looking beyond our sales, 6,168 tonnes of carbon were averted thanks to our activities in 2021 and, as a group, we have reduced our carbon footprint by over 50% over the past five years.
REPORT
HIGHLIGHTS
Our communities We have pledged to donate one million books by 2025 and, despite the challenges of the last 12 months, have already donated over 270,000 in the UK and abroad. We have ambitious targets to significantly step this up in 2022 with our partnerships including Books2Africa, Own Books and The Book Fairies. Stories wouldn’t exist without the inspiring authors behind them so, to support our authors, last year we launched the pioneering AuthorSHARE scheme. As part of this scheme, World of Books Group dedicated a fund of £200,000 to pay authors when a used copy of their book is sold. So far we’ve supported almost 37,000 authors as part of the scheme. Turning to the charity community, as a business we have raised over £100,000 for good causes through our Virgin Money Giving partnership. What’s more, via our Shopiago software, we are helping over 600 charities – including Marie Curie, British Heart Foundation, The British Red Cross and others – to generate revenue from donations for much needed causes.
Looking forward We are extremely proud of the great work the team has done so far, but we are equally excited about what the future holds. A story doesn’t change because it has been read before, and more customers than ever before are realising the benefits of the re-commerce economy. Looking forward, we are planning to become certified carbon neutral by the end of 2022, a net zero business by 2030 and we are committed to donating one million books to good causes. More broadly, we are dedicated to our company mission to protect the planet and support charities whilst making a positive impact on the world, all whilst continuing to offer our customers and communities more and more reasons to re-love a preloved book.
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OUR STORY It all began with a bag of books, rescued by book-loving entrepreneurs from a charity shop bin destined for landfill. They rescued them on the spot, determined to give them a second life, and World of Books Group was born. Over the last two decades, we have grown from a start-up into pioneers of the circular economy, helping more people join the reuse revolution. We may have grown, but our mission’s never changed. We exist to support charities, protect the planet and make a positive impact in the world by enabling more goods to be reused. That’s why we’ve been awarded B Corporation® (B Corps™) status – a business that meets the highest standard of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. In short, we care about people and the planet.
Our story of 20/21 The last financial year has been transformational for our business and our positive social and environmental impact, all against the backdrop of the continuing global pandemic. We continued in our mission to protect the planet and support communities, rehoming more books than ever before.
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WHO WE ARE In 2002, World of Books Group was founded on an ethos to do good, protect the planet and support charities by enabling more goods to be reused.
Since then, we’ve grown into to a global leader in re-commerce. Today, we drive the circular economy through three brands: Wob, Ziffit and Shopiago.*
Through Wob, we sell. We provide affordable used books and media to customers all over the world. A book leaves our collection of over eight million titles and begins a new chapter every two seconds.
Through Ziffit, we buy. We give people around the world the opportunity to contribute to the circular economy, earn money and protect the planet, by trading their unwanted books and media. We are one of the largest trade-in sites in the UK and our model is 100% circular.
We source books from UK charities – buying tonnes of surplus donated books, boosting revenues for these good causes – and through other channels, such as book banks. We also work with international donation partners and wholesalers sourcing and selling books globally. And if we can’t sell or donate items, we make sure they are responsibly recycled.
Our specialist rare books team take care of older books to make sure nothing goes to waste. Since 2020 we’ve been giving customers the option to buy a new book when we don’t have a used copy available. Many of these new books are printed on demand to make sure we keep the order sustainable.
*In the context of the report Wob refers to both the group and the individual Wob brand unless otherwise specified.
Everything traded through Ziffit is then sold through marketplaces and wob.com. Ziffit also powers in store ‘buyback’ programs in new book shops; helping to closing the loop on new book purchase, use and reuse. In 2020 we expanded into the USA. From our base in Cincinnati, Ohio we source books through Ziffit and sell back to American Consumers through wob.com and other third party marketplaces.
Through Shopiago, we help others. Used by the UK’s leading charity retailers, Shopiago is a SaaS product that helps charities to grow their online sales and reduce waste through re-commerce. As experts in online retail and re-commerce technology, we help charities to maximise the potential of every donation. By using Shopiago, charities can value, list and dispatch items faster. And improve their inventory management, performance insights and Gift Aid tracking. At the end of 2021, Shopiago was expanded, giving charities the tools to sell online, trade in books and media, and to help organise the collections of surplus books, all in one place.
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OUR PURPOSE
BUSINESS FOR GOOD
We are a circular economy, for profit company that protects the planet and supports charities by helping people reuse.
In a year when the unusual – labour shortages, further lockdowns, severe weather events, supply chain dysfunction – continued to be the usual, the need for businesses to seek social and environmental benefit as well as bottom-line success became even more urgent...
Our Values Responsibility: We work responsibly, value each other and treat the planet with respect. Action: We take actions that improve our business for customers, colleagues and communities. Pioneering: We find ways to better ourselves, grow our business and put more to reuse.
Our Vision To be a global leader in re-commerce through innovation and technology
As a country and community, the effects of Covid 19 continued to dominate, causing restrictions for our people and our supply chain. We had to work hard, adapt, and remain innovative, finding solutions for sourcing and supplying used books to our consumers.
Development Goals
Our commitment to impact is at the core of what we do, it’s a founding pillar of our business and continues to guide the decisions we make. Despite the challenges the last year has thrown our way, we are thriving. We believe wholeheartedly that looking after our stakeholders keeps our foundations strong, allowing us to not only survive uncertainty but grow alongside it.
Our values are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals: We adopt principles of circular economy to reduce waste and levels of raw materials used, and welcome innovative thinking to evolve and improve on our impact.
We promote the importance of quality education for all by ensuring our goods are more widely accessible and affordable, and continue to donate books to local schools and good causes, helping to bridge gaps in literacy levels both in the UK and internationally.
The declaration of B Corporations states: • That we must be the change we seek in the world.
Within our day-to-day operations, we actively measure and assess our scope 1 & 2 emissions in order to have a positive impact on the environment.
• That all business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered. • That, through their products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all. • To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.
B Corp certification is managed by B Lab. B Lab UK is a non-profit established in 2015 to serve a growing community of 600+ UKbased companies, a global movement of entrepreneurs, using the power of business to solve social and environmental issues. It’s vision is that all businesses across the globe will measure and manage their impact with the same attention as they do profit.
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IN FY21:
c.90% of our people were paid the real living wage and we are striving for 100%
Employee
+ Engagement Score Change to Attrition
–
+
People systems
Printed paper +
Focus on engagement and cultural change
GOOD FOR OUR PEOPLE We are people centric and everything we do is aligned to the desire to do good for our people, bring our purpose and values alive for all, and have fun along the way.
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Carol Atkins Head of People and Culture
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Living our values Our new reward and recognition scheme highlights people who are really ‘living our values’. The six winners each month are entered for one of our prestigious Employee of the Year awards. We expanded the behavioural competency framework, aligning it to the value and purpose driven behaviours we feel passionate about. It’s all about doing the right thing, getting things done and making things better! The People team had great fun trialling our new volunteering program, spending a very windy day cleaning our local beach. The volunteering programme will be offered to everyone in Q2 2022.
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Engagement with our People
Partnerships and initiatives
Our people engagement survey in April 2021 was followed by listening groups where 200 people from all over the business took part. Action plans were created based on this feedback to continue the journey of making things better.
• Government Kickstart Scheme Providing work placements for young people identified as ‘at risk’ of long term unemployment.
Wob Points arrived giving our people the chance to recognise one another for great work. Wob Points, can be spent online, or donated to plant trees, as part of our commitment to reduce Wob’s carbon footprint. We changed to hybrid working to give our people an improved work-life balance. And we improved our wellbeing package, giving access to our Employee Assistance Programme and support for mental health initiatives.
• Ex-offenders programme Actively considering people for employment after they leave prison. We believe everyone deserves the opportunity to start again. • Partnering with Local Councils Providing employment opportunities for refugees.
We will bring our best everyday
We will create new opportunities for you, if you are interested
We will look out for one another and help keep each other safe at work
We will celebrate your successes but never stop striving for better
We will all strive to be role models
58%
61.3%
FY2020
FY2021
ENGAGEMENT SCORE
We will all play a part in reducing our carbon footprint
Inclusiveness for all
Engagement & Excitement
We want everyone to be themselves in an environment that values individuality
We work as one towards a shared goal, giving you opportunities to give feedback and listening to your suggestions
We live by our values We treat each other fairly and with respect. Always
We will communicate with you more frequently with information that is relevant to you We have fun! Everything’s better when we’re happy – and we aim to make work fun and rewarding
We added lots of safety measures during the Covid 19 pandemic as part of our continued efforts to safeguard our people.
3.3%
Greg Funnell Talent Development Manager
We will own the story together
Supporting our people
Engagement increase of
”
We will nurture your talent We will give you the tools to grow and develop
• Relaunching our People Referral Scheme Referrals have become the main source of hire; 46% for the Coventry Warehouse.
Employee ratings have improved from 3.0 to 4.1 on Glassdoor as a result of better employee engagement.
Our lives are full of moments of learning, from experiences, to mistakes, to expertly run internal training courses! The more of these moments we grasp, the more we can grow and improve.
Our promise to each other…
And we expanded our People Team with the addition of a Talent Acquisition Manager, Talent Development Manager and a People Systems Manager.
Wob has much to be proud of in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am immensely proud of the way everyone has pulled together to keep each other safe and healthy, and we will continue to do this throughout the lifespan of the pandemic.
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Rick Patten Head of Health, Safety and Facilities
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INTERNAL PROMOTIONS Diana Ungureanu I have been in quite a few teams during my time at Wob but one thing remained constant – the support. Having the experience of other managerial jobs, I can firmly say that Wob proves time and time again to be a nurturing environment that promotes and recognizes the value of its people, that encourages ideas and doesn’t shy away from taking risks to pave the way for a new and better future. I am proud to say that I am part of the Wob team, and together we write a new chapter in the company’s history.
Edwin Thomas I love the multi-faceted nature of my role, the daily ability to learn something new, and the chance to get stuck into different areas and challenges of the business. I am grateful for all of the opportunities I have been given with my time at Wob, but am most grateful for the people I work with. Across departments, people at Wob have a genuine passion for the company, its ethos and each other.
Mike Jeffrey There’s a common theme throughout my time at Wob… People. The incredible minds, the support, and the friends I made along the way, I owe it all to them, almost everyone here at Wob has played a part in my progression both professionally and personally.
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Developing our Teams We have a strong belief in learning at Wob, and help our people develop wherever we can. The past year we have financially supported external qualifications, apprenticeships, leadership coaching and training courses. And next year we will be launching a new Leadership Training Framework with access to a catalogue of ondemand training.
Onboarding We are passionate about what we do at Wob and are keen for our people to feel this as soon as they join. This year we introduced a new starter checklist and welcome day, to make sure our people get off to the best start.
ALL DEVELOPMENT
Attrition / retention data Voluntary attrition has reduced even further, now down to 22.30%.
Average hours a month
Approximately
4 hours
2,376
We pay close attention to our Gender Pay Gap, and are proud to once again say that World Of Books Ltd has a 0% median pay gap and woman earn an average of 2% above men. We also saw an uplift in both men and women receiving bonuses. 97% of women (up from 85%) and 85% of men (up from 74.7%) were able to benefit from one this year. We are now focused on improving the score for World of Books Group Ltd which includes our Leadership Team. Our board now has three female members from our investors, Livingbridge.
Away from the figures, we have recently launched a project team for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). The project team have been fortunate to speak to some external experts, who have supported our aims for the initial stage of the project. This will include increasing awareness of EDI, and setting up listening groups who can help to drive our support in this area to all of our people.
Introducing
hybrid working where we can
per head per month
Average Tenure
3.1 years We ran the following internal courses/training: ATTENDEES:
28
ATTENDEES:
ATTENDEES:
22 COURSE:
Resilience
External courses:
23 COURSE:
ATTENDEES:
30
Mental health
COURSE:
Values chats
ATTENDEES:
21 COURSE:
Professional Qualifications, workshops and online learning
COURSE:
Studied towards apprenticeships/ NVQS
Glassdoor Score
4.1
https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/ Employer/QxKxNnoy/2020
We hire with the aim of diversifying and enhancing our culture to strengthen the growth mindset we are so proud of. Our talent is our driving force towards becoming a global leader in re-commerce through innovation and technology.
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Emma Newnham Talent Acquisition Manager
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21
We measure and monitor our growth through a sustainability-lens. This helps guide our operational decisions to have a more positive impact towards our Scope 1 & 2 emissions, while promoting a circular economy and reduction of waste through recycling.
88 tonnes
of media diverted from waste (amount that would have gone to landfill without Wob)
Total books sold by World of Books Group (including wholesale)
n n
Total tonnes resold Total books sold 13,518,885
GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
The equivalent of
26,434 tonnes
5,507
of new paper saved, through resale and recycling of used books...
11,565,505 4,711
It is essential that our purpose continues to drive sustainability & impact.
”
...which in turn equates to
449,378 trees!
Simon Downes Founder, Chief Development Officer
2019-20
2020-21
22
23
Collection miles per tonne
6168.25 (tC02)
World of Books Group Total Carbon footprint (scope 1 + 2) 2,558
2,383
180.2
2017-18
tonnes of carbon were averted by our existence in the world on 2021
2,304
168.4
2018-19
1,322
tonnes of books were responsibly recycled
1,198
701,472 78.72
133.74
46.46
118.71
Charity collection miles
117,488
35.37
132.1
n
234,029 56
144.83
2020-21
Total actual miles saved
11.8
154.8
2019-20
20,927
Miles per tonne saving YOY
210.8
114,281 92.09
n
165,148
Book bank collection miles
42,910
LOCKDOWN – CHARITY SHOPS CLOSED
Built environment update 2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
15 Electric Vehicle charging points were installed at our main sites.
2020-21
And we employed a software solution to help us protect the environment and ensure compliance with environmental legislation.
Miles driven per tonne Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
YTD AV
FY17/18
178.72
190.81
175.13
173.27
179.86
172.59
188.69
180.03
175.62
176.31
186.84
195.01
181.07
FY18/19
187.11
191.67
176.80
166.67
164.98
164.58
159.89
163.97
164.14
155.67
163.59
165.14
168.68
FY19/20
159.91
157.69
144.25
151.16
153.64
0.00
0.00
127.31
122.52
122.04
131.47
137.58
140.75
FY20/21
146.33
139.68
116.38
116.49
117.2
123.09
128.21
122.03
132..43
126.32
129.59
131.92
127.47
COVID LOCKDOWN RESTRICTIONS LIFTED
On average, we travelled
9.4%
fewer miles (per tonne collected compared to previous year)
We are in the process of converting our lighting from fluorescent to LED and the Goring site is now 100% LED.
LED Lighting uses up to 85% less energy and provides more light than traditional light bulbs. So win-win! In July we launched our Car Benefit Scheme to eligible employees, encouraging the switch to fully electric vehicles as a way to reduce personal carbon emissions. We’re delighted that 100% of our people in the scheme have chosen an EV.
EV charging points have been installed due to the increased demand from staff and visitors. Electric vehicles reduce our carbon footprint, and have other environmental benefits such as noise pollution reduction, so this was a scheme we were happy to support as a company.
”
Rick Patten Head of Health and Safety
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This year we introduced chatbots and AI to shorten our response times and give customers different ways to contact us. Our Trustpilot score is 4.8/5 which shows our customers like the new ways to contact us and are happy with the service we provide. • We responded to 1,289,130 emails and held 16,359 live chat conversations with our customers. • To support our Wob and Ziffit customers we aim to resolve email queries within 24 hours and respond to live chat in 30 seconds. We also have our chatbots available 24/7. • To support our charity partners we now offer our Shopiago Trade-in, which has a live chat option.
Customer survey score
77% Emails responded to
1,289,130 Live chat conversations
GOOD FOR OUR CUSTOMERS
16,359
We are focusing on new ways of engaging with our customers. We believe these changes will provide an enhanced customer experience.
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Debbie Nicholl Customer Services Manager
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OUR CAMPAIGNS
WE BECAME Wob!
Sustainable Sundays This campaign promotes the B Corp Community, the benefits of choosing companies with a purpose and some of our favourite fellow B Corps. We also share our top tips for sustainability.
Green Friday We’ve made a conscious decision to avoid Black Friday. Our customers recognise that this just doesn’t fit with our purpose led mission. Instead we highlight the great value we have on offer all year around and the benefit of buying preloved.
Black History Month Impact doesn’t just mean championing sustainability, it also means shining a spotlight on areas such as diversity and inclusion. Our Black History Month campaign was designed to raise awareness of underrecognised historical black authors, bringing them to new audiences and giving them the recognition they deserve. It was one of the most visited pages and reached over 1million accounts.
At the end of this year we entered a new chapter, transitioning from World of Books to Wob. Books will always be our first passion but we needed a name to reflect that we now offer so much more. We were already called Wob by lots of our customers, so it made sense to choose this for our new name. As Wob continues to grow we remain committed to providing great service.
Wob served almost
1.8m
customers
We wholeheartedly believe in the power of books to empower, engage and inspire us and we believe that a story doesn’t change because it has been read before. The circular economy is going from strength to strength and we’re excited to be part of the journey.
”
Over
12m items were traded
We’re committed to using our platforms to champion a range of impact and purpose led initiatives, and to introduce more and more consumers to the reuse revolution.
Becky Alford Head of Brand
There were over
175,000 Ziffit customers
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Champions of the Circular Economy Our communications have been refreshed to tell more of our story and increase customer awareness of our purpose led mission. Encouraging customers to buy preloved books with Wob and sell their used goods through Ziffit – the complete circular economy!
Innovation for our customers Our Innovation Team focus on new recommerce products. So far they have added eBooks to our collection, and are trialling a new book buy back service.
Our customer comms are going through a period of exciting transformation which allows us to provide more personalised and relevant experiences. And we’re thrilled to see that customers continue to respond to communications promoting the circular economy and the good that we do.
7.97 million emails received
When we started selling preloved books in 2002, online recommerce was in its infancy. Year on year, public perception changed around buying used and the market in online preloved books now grows 13% annually. It’s in a great place.
”
”
Ciaran Downes CRM Manager
2.1 million emails received
Simon Downes Founder, Chief Development Officer
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Wob has pledged to donate one million books a year to good causes by 2025, and despite facing various challenges including school closures and local lockdowns, to date we have still managed to donate over 200,000 books. We plan to build on this year on year. Moving into 2022, we aim to secure partnerships which will allow for more regular donations, aiming to have our most successful donation year to date.
GOOD FOR OUR COMMUNITY We are committed to our pledge to donate 1 million books to good causes and literacy programmes both in the UK and internationally. We firmly believe in doing all we can to ensure children have access to books to help aid their future development.
”
Joseph Hewitt Wholesale Sales Coordinator
Wob has pledged to donate
1 million books a year by 2025
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Donation partners
Leading by example... AuthorSHARE
We partner with Books2Africa and Sussex to Africa, to make sure donated books are given to individuals, schools, and communities, where learning materials would ordinarily be scarce. In 2021 45,500 books were delivered to Africa.
Last year, we teamed up with The Society for Authors, The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and Bookbarn International to launch a world-first scheme that paid authors for the sale of used books – AuthorSHARE. We dedicated a fund of £200,000 for the scheme’s first year, to pay authors when a used copy of their work is sold online via Wob.
“ [Wob] brings
hope and reading joy to so many children.”
Own Books, is a child centred project which supplies books to children of all backgrounds, without discrimination. By supporting Own Books, we’re helping to supply books to families who wouldn’t have access.
Community Sponsorship
In FY21, we have donated over
270,000 books, globally. Through our donations partnership with Book Fairies we helped pre-loved books get into the hands of unassuming readers.
As the used book market outpaces the new book market in terms of growth, the scheme was developed to give authors a fairer deal as more consumers choose to buy preloved and join the reuse revolution. We’re thrilled to have so far supported almost 37,000 authors in the first payout.
Wob is proud to sponsor the Business Pivot Award in the Sussex Business Awards, recognising companies that were forced to pivot their business models to survive the events of 2020 and 2021. Wob has previously been a two-time winner at the Sussex Business Awards.
The growth of the used book market is fantastic in so many ways; it offers affordable literacy and protects the planet by enabling more goods to be reused. But until now, authors have missed out on the benefits of the movement towards a more circular model of book consumption. A new book will be sold once but their stories can be enjoyed by multiple owners. The AuthorSHARE scheme addresses this, giving authors the potential to be paid at every point in its lifecycle. We’re incredibly proud to be paying authors for their stories and creativity – not purely fresh ink and paper.
”
Graham Bell CEO
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Building long-term, sustainability focused partnerships that create real value for fantastic causes is the heart of what we do. 2021 was an incredibly challenging year for charity retail . Wob saw 2021 as a time to invest in our partnership team to further support the sector.
Since launching our excess book collection and scanning partnership with Wob in April 21 we have seen fantastic results. The team at Wob took the time to understand the best solution for Debra and are always on hand to look at new ways to grow revenue
”
for our charity.
OVER 4,000 SHOPS ACROSS 600 CHARITIES
2021 has also seen the World of Books Group:
GOOD FOR OUR PARTNERS
Present at the first CRA Green Conference
Working with our charity partners that have shown such resilience, positivity and future planning through the challenges of 2021 has been incredible. An extremely exciting time ahead with huge opportunities to grow revenues for good causes through re-commerce.
”
Josh Bentham Head of Charity Partnerships
Raise over £100k
Headline sponsor the Charity Retail Association (CRA) Conference
for worthy causes through our partnership with Virgin Money Giving
Scan over 750,000 Books and Media to be traded for instant cash
Start the journey to full TRUST (Trader Recycling Universal Standard certification)
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SHOPIAGO Shopiago Ecommerce
Shopiago Trade-in
We have focused our strategy on making it easier, faster and simpler for charities to sell online, and to ensure that Shopiago continues to be the most intuitive, accessible product in the market.
Since its inception, Shopiago has helped over one million items to be re-sold online, 2021 saw a huge shift in the UK charity sector with lots more charities turning to online retail. We have continued to invest in our product, adding new features and growing our team to make sure our charity partners receive first class service.
”
An increasing proportion of our sales are coming from Collect In Store, enabling charities to create a truly circular economy within their online sales channel, bring customers to store and encouraging more donations.
Shopiago Sales by Category
2021 FY: 1st Oct 20 – 31st Nov 21
17% 8% 7% 6%
This means less items ending up in landfill, and more money going towards helping good causes. The circular economy at it’s very best.
Thom Bryan Head of Shopiago
20% 12%
In 2021, Shopiago Trade-in launched. Now charities and businesses can easily scan their pre-loved books and media and receive an instant cash offer.
Clothes, Shoes & Accessories
Categories making up <1% of Sales
Home, Furniture & DIY
Jewellery & Watches
Toys & Games
Collectables
We have worked with Shopiago Trade-In (previously Charity Scanning)
5%
Pottery, Porcelain & Glass
using their book and media scanning technology for 6 years and seen a
5%
Books, Comics & Magazines
huge benefit not just in terms of the valuable income for our charity but
4%
Cameras & Photography
3%
Video Games & Consoles
3%
Sound & Vision
3%
Health & Beauty
3%
Sporting Goods
2%
Computers/Tablets & Networking
2%
Music
more importantly the impact on the circular economy and sustainability goals through the reuse of books and prevention of waste. We have seen their technology evolve and their business model develop, and are happy
”
to support and work alongside this advancing B Corp certified organisation.
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Online sales have become a vital part of our retail strategy during the last two years, and Shopiago has been an essential part of the process. Using the space we had at our larger shops, we created regional hubs for online sales. By working with Shopiago, we were able to reach a point where we had multiple users confidently listing and dispatching donations.
We couldn’t have done this without the Shopiago platform, and the brilliant training and support from the team. The pandemic has changed shopping habits forever, and we’ve seen our online sales continue to increase throughout 2021 as more people have chosen to shop online. This in turn has provided valuable revenue, helping the BHF to continue to improve and save the lives of those 7.6 million people in the UK living with heart and circulatory disease.
The Shopiago team have taken time to understand our charity, volunteers and retail staff. The growth we’ve seen in online sales in 2021 has meant we’ve been able to fund nurses, hospices and other vital services that give terminally ill people comfort at the end of their life.
Robin Osterley Chief Executive, Charity Retail Association
Selina Taylor Retail Gift Aid Officer, Marie Curie
Shopiago enabled us to set up a safe click-and-collect operation at our stores, where teams could list and dispatch items themselves. This meant we could continue selling stock and raising vital funds during the lockdowns, and has enabled us to create future contingency plans for our shops.
Richard Pallier Head of Retail Online, British Heart Foundation
Selling online is a fantastic opportunity to reach more buyers from all over the world and achieve higher selling prices for the generous donations we receive. Using Shopiago has enabled our shops to see what’s happening to their donations, tracking online sales back to their own revenue targets – it’s really helped our shop teams to see the value of e-commerce.
Online retail provided a fundraising lifeline for charities during the pandemic, when shops were shut and events were impossible. For many of our member charities, a ‘digital future’ has quickly become a digital present.
It’s clear Shopiago has been an asset to charities as they fully embrace online sales, making the listing process easier and faster, and giving charities the data and insights they need to make sound retail decisions, which has had a direct impact on the vital work they carry out every day.
During the first month of our partnership with Shopiago, we reduced the average time it takes to list an item from 15 minutes to 8, and we plan to reduce this further. This has resulted in a 50% increase in volume of online listings, which in turn has reduced the backlog of donated items waiting to be listed. Vicky McGirr Online Marketplace & Development Manager, British Red Cross
Shopiago has proved to be a valuable tool for many charities selling online, helping streamline the process, provide useful data and remove some of the barriers to online sales that charities face. The team there are dedicated to helping charities sell more, raise more money for good causes and continue their important work. Chris Gale Head of Social Impact, eBay UK
eBay’s Charity Connect programme aims to make online sales more accessible for charities – from small regional charities that are just starting out, to some of the high street’s most established charity retailers.
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Wob GROWTH As part of our mission to grow global re-commerce, we expanded our business in the USA putting more books into the reuse revolution on the other side of the pond. New Investment Partner – Livingbridge We were delighted to support Wob as it entered an exciting new chapter of its growth. We are proud to stand behind its B Corp status, and believe in its core mission to protect the planet and support UK Charities by encouraging people to reuse. Having invested in the Consumer sector for over 25 years, we see a clear shift in consumers preferences towards ecologically responsible brands, as well as increased supply chain scrutiny and focus on a company’s ESG impact. It is our view that mission led brands attract both consumers and talent, which drives outsized growth and the potential to become market leaders. As a re-commerce business operating within the books sector, we believe Wob has the opportunity to become both category defining and a force for good. Wob has impact through three areas – the promotion of used goods; championing literacy by helping to make books more widely accessible; and taking action to reduce carbon emissions. Each of these aligns with the UN Sustainable Development goals of responsible consumption, quality education and climate action.
”
Susie Stanford Livingbridge
New Books
USA
In 2021 we added a further two suppliers of new books. One of our new partners is a Print on Demand supplier, meaning that the book is only printed for a customer’s order.
We have completed our first full year of trading in the US. Our inventory has grown from 450k to over 1m units over the 12 months. Our US business remains an asset light, selective sourcing model with a focus on circular economy.
We have successfully grown our sales of new books over 2021 and we continue to only list a new book when we don’t have a used copy in stock. As we look forward to 2022 we will be adding additional suppliers to continue to diversify the product catalogue and support more publishers and distributors.
79% of new book customers go on to buy a mix of new and used books
The growth of our US business has been supported by integrations with B2B partners and improving the customer journey.
As we look to forward to 2022 we are aiming to double our revenue from 2021 which will require further operational investments.
US inventory doubled to correct dimensions & colors
1m units in the last year
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FY21 Highlights WOB.com seeing
128% growth in sales
Ziffit USA achieving
60% increase
growth
in charity sales via Shopiago
Achieving a
over 4.7x
Attracting investment from Livingbridge
YOY group performance commentary Financial Year
Sales (£’m)*
Employees
FY 2017-18
£64.0m
568
FY 2018-19
£77.1m
750
FY 2019-20
£76.6m
700
FY 2020-21
£101.4m
721
*figures provided are from the consolidated accounts of the parent trading company of the Group, all of which are available at Companies House.
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW FY21 has been a landmark year for the Group in so many ways, including the investment by Livingbridge. Their investment supports our belief that it is possible build and grow a sustainable business which is attractive to investors.
”
Daniel Guttridge Finance Director
Throughout 2021 we continued to face challenges from the impact of COVID-19. Our book supplies have been affected by the closure of charity shops and costs of postage, fuel and energy have gone up. These costs increases, twinned with a squeeze on staff availability, create a tough environment. Despite these challenges, we have continued to innovate to improve the business and prepare the launchpad for future successes.
Sales are up by
32.1% against 2021
Growing revenue yearon-year by 32% whilst still being impacted by COVID is down to the hard work of all our brilliant people.
”
Graham Bell CEO
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NEXT CHAPTER We are on a mission: to become a global leader in recommerce through innovation and technology. This Impact Report demonstrates our deep commitment to being a business-for-good and to grow the re-use of books and media in a socially and environmentally responsible way. We have an exciting Impact Programme planned for the next 12 months. We will deliver on our pledge to be a certified carbon neutral business by October 2022. We will publish our plan for becoming a net zero carbon business by 2030 and we will complete the re-certification process to secure our B-Corp accreditation. With new education and engagement programmes being launched across the business, the trial of electric vans for charity book collections and the exploration into the use of solar to power our warehouse operations, 2022 promises to be our most ambitious year to date.
As newly appointed Impact Manager, I am looking forward to diving into Wob’s impact mission with the team. We have a lot of exciting projects that we’re working towards, and I am confident that we’ll achieve even greater things in FY22!
”
Hannah Clevett Impact Manager
Our vision:
become a global leader in recommerce
October 2022
Certified carbon neutral business
2030
Net zero carbon business
Two and a half trees One last thing. For the first time in our history, this Impact Report is a 100% digital publication. No printed copies of this report have been produced. By going digital 2.5 trees have been saved. We must take every step possible to reduce our environmental impact no matter how small that step may be.
FIND OUT MORE For more information, visit the About Us section of our website :
wob.com Follow us on our journey, be part of our story, and #ShareTheLoveOfReading with us: Instagram: wob.group Twitter: @Wob_group Facebook: WobGroup LinkedIn: World of Books Group
World of Books Group Mulberry House, Woods Way Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex BN12 4QY
The information and data in this report refers to the legal entity World of Books Group and is based on our 2020-21 financial year (FY21), which ran from 1 November 2020 - 31 October 2021.