The Charity Retail Association has launched a website that will match people with volunteering opportunities in charity shops.
The membership body has also developed a partnership with the National Citizen Service Trust to encourage school-leavers to offer their time to help in charity stores.
The government said last month that non-essential retail stores in England, including charity shops, would be able to reopen from 15 June if they met criteria including a completed risk assessment and following Covid-19 working guidelines.
But the CRA warned last month that charity shops could be hit by the “double whammy” of a high number of donations and reduced workforces as they began to reopen.
The CRA, in partnership with the charity technology company Wil-U, has set up a dedicated web page that asks people to offer their time to charity shops over the coming weeks and months.
The site says the voluntary sector has been devastated by the effects of the coronavirus outbreak and charities need to reopen their shops to begin bringing in income.
But it says that charities expect a shortage in the number of volunteers available to work in shops and calls on people to sign up to help.
The CRA said its partnership with the NCS Trust to find 16 and 17-year-old volunteers was a “superb opportunity for charity retailers to access a pool of eager and willing young volunteers who are ready to help charity shops open”.
The deadline for registering interest in receiving NCS volunteers is 5pm on 12 June. CRA members can access more information here.