Our shops faced many challenges during 2020 and again at the beginning of this year. Although their doors have been forced to close during the national lockdowns, this highlighted an opportunity to grow our online presence.
When the second lockdown was announced towards the end of 2020 and the third in January, we were able to apply what we had learned over the past months to enable us to remain trading on both our eBay and Amazon platforms.
Selling online offers the opportunity to highlight the quirky and unusual items donated by our supporters. We can showcase a huge variety of donations to a much wider audience who can browse at their convenience, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Many of the items that we sell on eBay come from our house clearance service and our shop staff are also skilled at identifying quirky or antique items to send to our Hospiscare Enterprise Centre (HEC) in Marsh Barton.
Our e-commerce team is based at the HEC and they research, photograph, list, sell and dispatch all kinds of interesting items on eBay and Amazon to raise money for Hospiscare. We have approximately 12,000 items listed at any one time on Amazon and over 100 on eBay.
Kane Millington-Smith is an eBay Officer in our e-commerce team and explains the highlights of selling donations online: “The e-commerce department is constantly changing with new items coming in every day. There’s always something new to look forward to!
“Working for Hospiscare is incredibly rewarding. It’s very satisfying to be part of a team of people working towards the same goal: to raise as much money as we can for the charity.”
Hospiscare eBay Officer Kane Millington-Smith
Like the rest of the retail team, the e-commerce department rely on volunteers who support Hospiscare by donating their time. As the department continues to grow, the team needs more volunteers to help raise money for Hospiscare patients. Kane explains, “The volunteers we have are so important and add a huge amount of insight and knowledge to our team. We benefit greatly from people bringing their talents and expertise.
“To anyone thinking about volunteering, I’d say come and give it a go! You can do as much or as little as you like and the e-commerce department is perfect for anyone with specific skills and interests or simply a desire to try something new.”
You can explore the wonderful world of e-commerce by visiting our eBay, eBay bookstore and Amazon online stores.
If you are interested in volunteering in the e-commerce department, check our volunteering page for updates or follow us on social media to find out when we are recruiting.
