Good for the environment

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.

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.

Selina Taylor

Retail Gift Aid Officer, Marie Curie

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.

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. 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.

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 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.

Robin Osterley

Chief Executive, Charity Retail Association

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.

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

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 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 USA

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.

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 correct dimensions & colors doubled to 1m units

in the last year

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 FY21 Highlights

WOB.com seeing 128%

growth in sales

Ziffit USA achieving over 4.7x

growth

Achieving a 60% increase

in charity sales via Shopiago

Attracting investment from Livingbridge

YOY group performance commentary

Financial Year

FY 2017-18

FY 2018-19

Sales (£’m)*

£64.0m

£77.1m

FY 2019-20 £76.6m

FY 2020-21 £101.4m

*figures provided are from the consolidated accounts of the parent trading company of the Group, all of which are available at Companies House.

Employees

568

750

700

721

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

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.