Oxfam is the first charity to use a smartphone messaging app to encourage visitors to its shops to engage with the charity’s online content.

People can use the Traces app on their smartphone to watch a video about the charity’s work and donate when they are near any of its 650 charity shops.

Traces launched its Public Traces feature in March 2015 which allows entities to use the company’s cloud-based platform, the Studio, to create content, such as web pages, videos and photos. Oxfam is the first charity to do so.

The platform is free but some features, such as restricting access to certain locations is charged for.

Matt Jerwood, digital fundraising lead at Oxfam, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for us to explore a new form of digital distribution to invite people to virtually look beyond our shop windows to engage with our digital content.

“We hope to reach new supporters by sharing stories to help people understand our work. The Traces platform enables us to make the connection between location-based marketing and the publishing of digital content at scale. It presents an interesting new opportunity in mobile fundraising.”

Professor Beau Lotto, neuroscientist and founder of Traces, said: “We know that people’s mindsets and their capacity for empathy are profoundly influenced by their location and yet so few digital products recognise this.”

Traces is currently only available on Apple devices although the organisation's website says that an Android version of the app is coming soon.