The value of retail sales from eBay.co.uk’s charity shops rose to £6.25m in 2011, a year-on-year increase of 56 per cent.

The Selling Online Survey 2011, conducted by the Charity Retail Association, reports that on average charities that sell online make 76 per cent of their online sales from eBay as opposed to 17 per cent from their own online sales. Almost 800 registered UK charities sold items on eBay during the busiest months of last year.

Spending among eBay UK’s charity shoppers has grown from £7.5m to £10.1m, a 34 per cent increase. Some 2,600 eBay users donated more than £100 to charity via the auction website in 2011.

Lorin May, head of EU charity and sustainability at eBay, attributed the increase to charities becoming more “entrepreneurial” and the service providing a “one-click” way for people to give online, with more than £1.77m donated through users at checkout. The increase in online giving has not affected the overall UK charity donation figure which has remained at around the £11bn mark.

The largest online charity seller at £580,000 was Millrace IT, an IT recycling social enterprise owned by InterAct charity. Interact CEO Anne Pleasant identified the need for charities to look beyond traditional fundraising streams:

“In the current climate, InterAct’s services are more in demand and funding is tight. We have to look at alternative ways of securing finance, not relying solely on grants and donations,” said Pleasant.

The Selling Online Survey sampled 75 charities of varying sizes representing a total of 4,105 shops.