Key facts
- Oxfam's retail profit fell 23% to £4.9m in the last financial year.
- The British Heart Foundation plans to close 150 stores due to losses.
- UK spending on secondhand clothing has quadrupled to £8.8bn a year.
- Oxfam's shops now allocate £6 of every £100 spent to poverty alleviation, down from £22 in 2022.
Profits at some of the UK’s best-known charity shops have declined amid pressures from online secondhand clothes platforms and a decrease in the quality of donated items. 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) plans to close 150 stores after they made a loss in the last financial year, and Cancer Research UK and Scope have also closed or are closing some of their shops. This decline occurs despite UK spending on secondhand clothing quadrupling to £8.8bn a year, driven by online platforms like Vinted and Depop. Charity shops face higher costs and inefficiencies compared to these platforms, and are increasingly receiving substandard donations. Oxfam's latest filings reveal that for every £100 spent in its shops, just £6 now goes towards the charity’s work on alleviating global poverty, down from £22 in 2022.