Oxfam's retail profit fell 23% to £4.9m in the last financial year, down from £6.4m the year before, according to unpublished accounts reviewed by the Financial Times. The British Heart Foundation, which operates the UK's largest charity shop estate, plans to close 150 stores after recording a £3.3m loss in the latest financial year. Cancer Research UK and Scope have also closed some locations.
The squeeze comes as online secondhand platforms such as Vinted and Depop have expanded. UK spending on secondhand clothing quadrupled over the past decade to £8.8bn annually, yet charity shops are losing share. The platforms allow individuals to sell directly to consumers rather than donating clothes to charities, reducing the flow of stock.
BHF saw shop profits plunge from £18.8m in 2024 to £3.6m in the year to 31 March 2025. The charity cited "an exceptionally challenging trading environment" and aims to close 90 stores by end of March 2027 and another 60 by March 2028.
Oxfam reported that for every £100 spent in its shops, just £6 now funds the charity's work fighting global poverty. In 2022, that figure was £22.
Charity shops face structural disadvantages against online competitors. They pay high street and warehouse rents, incur collection and sorting costs, and must price inventory. Tansy Hoskins, author of Charity Shop World, said the sector deals with "avalanches" of poor-quality clothes as donors use shops as convenient dumping grounds.
Robin Osterley, chief executive of the Charity Retail Association, attributed more impact to the November 2024 budget's national insurance increases and threshold lowering, which raised labour costs for part-time staff. He said Vinted and other platforms have a limited effect, partly because they normalise secondhand shopping and some buyers resell charity shop finds on those platforms.