Charity Furniture Donations - Post-lockdown stats

Alex Muir

Since shops were able to reopen on 12 April, our charity clients have been busier than ever.

We collect a lot of data at Boxmove and I'm aware that this data could be useful across the charity sector. This month we are sharing some statistics on the number and types of items we've collected since Shops reopened (England on 12 April and Scotland on 26 April). Our clients have access to these numbers for their own shops on a real-time basis ie. they know exactly what stock is arriving and leaving at all times.

You can view the original statistics here.

Since April 12 we have collected

  • 12,663 items of furniture.

  • Weighing 350 tons

  • With a (conservatively) estimated retail value of £696,000

The most popular donated items since lockdown:

Sofa 1,925 Armchair 1,317 Drawers 1,142 Table 644 Cardboard box 638 Wardrobe 552 Shelving unit 514 Bag 492 Bed (inc. mattress) 444 Sideboard 444 Dining Set 429 Dining Chair 375 TV Stand 322 Coffee Table 278 Bed Frame 230 Cabinet 225 Lamp 222 Mirror 216 Picture Frame 183

Most common failure reasons

Note that these reasons are only recorded for a job where our van was unable to collect any items. If a shop booked us to collect four things and we took two, that is not considered a failure and so no reason is recorded. However, our clients only pay us for the items that we actually collect.

Failure reasons

Learnings

  • Almost 8x more items were rejecting for being unsaleable than for having no fire labels.

  • Despite receiving a text message with a 90-minute ETA, the second most common reason for a job failing is customers not being at home.

  • Our clients shop staff are doing an outstanding job of verifying the presence of fire labels during the booking process.

  • The failure rate per item varies enormously. Highest risk items include:

    • Mattresses

    • Dining chairs

    • Ottomans

    • Beds

    • Sofas are higher risk than armchairs

  • Low risk items:

    • Televisions

    • Shelving units

    • Lamps

    • Picture frames

We work with over twenty different charities and have more than 25 vans operating around the UK so we see a good cross section of the industry.

If you find this useful and would like to receive these updates on a regular basis please email my colleague Alex Rennie at alex.rennie@boxmove.com and he'll add you to our circulation list.

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