We all know charities and nonprofits are under increasing pressure to increase revenue and diversify income streams. As a result more and more charitable organisations are turning to eCommerce to reach new audiences and drive additional revenue.
Having an online shop has a number of benefits:
- creates an additional revenue stream for an organisation
- builds loyal audiences who make repeat purchases
- presents an ability to engage with new audiences (people often buy gifts for others)
- can become a channel to collect target audience information.
Due to the complexity of creating and managing a store, historically eCommerce has been seen as something reserved for larger organisations. However there are now a number of lower cost eCommerce software providers such as Shopify, that allow smaller charities to run an effective online shop and sell merchandise direct to supporters.
Products can be anything from t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts or clothing to smaller items such as badges. Charities with international links could also incorporate products from the countries in which they work.
The advent of drop shipping, fulfilment services and customisable products means that you can stock smaller amounts of physical product and send items direct to individuals without the need for costly storage solutions.
So the barrier to entry of eCommerce is becoming considerably lower.
Once a charitable organisation has an established a eCommerce shop, the next stage is to integrate Gift Aid.
Gift Aid is a great incentive to allow charities to maximise the revenue from donations by being allowed to claim back tax on donations.
You can integrate Gift Aid into your Shopify eCommerce store by:
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- adding Gift Aid declarations to product and cart pages, thus maximising your revenue
- creating donation products of any monetary value
- asking customers to add a top up donation when buying a product
- collating the data needed to apply for Gift Aid reimbursement
At Add10 we have worked with a number of UK charities to integrate Gift Aid into their Shopify stores and have experience of creating bespoke solutions based on organisations specific requirements.
If you would like to find out more about adding Gift Aid to your eCommerce store or would like to learn about how eCommerce could benefit your organisation please get in touch!All of our projects are bespoke, so please get in touch with us if you would like to discuss how we could help your organisation