Charity retailers lost out on an estimated £366m during the third lockdown earlier this year, new figures indicate.
Data from the Charity Retail Association’s quarterly market analysis for January to March shows the average charity shop lost out on £33,150 because of the closure of non-essential stores.
When that figure is multiplied by the 11,041 charity shops that the CRA estimates there are in the UK, it comes to slightly more than £366m.
The CRA said the average figure for lost sales would be a slight underestimate because non-essential stores were closed from early January and did not start reopening until mid-April but its data only covers the first three months of the year.
The membership body had previously estimated that charity shops lost £285m during the first national lockdown between March and June last year.
The CRA said charities had turned to online sales to help plug the funding gap caused by the pandemic.
It said Shopiago, a company that helps charities sell shop donations online, had reported a 151 per cent rise in items sold through its platform between February and July this year.