Every donated item is a judgment call.
Spark replaces it with data.
Photograph the item. Spark identifies it, prices it against live resale comps, and routes it to the channel where it earns the most for the mission.
Pilot-first rollout · no EPOS integration required · your charity owns the data
Millions of unique items.
Zero data behind the price.
A volunteer picks up a donated jacket and must decide what it is, what it is worth, and where it should go. Across an estate, that decision is made millions of times a year with nothing to go on.
No barcodes, no data
Every donated item is a unique single unit. There is no catalogue entry, no cost price, and no sales history to price against, so pricing runs on instinct.
Millions of judgment calls a year
Knowledge walks out the door
Pricing skill lives in experienced volunteers and managers. High turnover means the knowledge leaves faster than it can be taught to the next shift.
Expertise that never compounds
Value found by luck
A designer jacket sells for £4 on a rail unless an experienced manager happens to spot it on the sorting table. Spotting is a coincidence, not a system.
Systematic mispricing
Dead stock erodes contribution
Items sit on the wrong rail in the wrong shop until they are ragged. The loss is quiet, constant, and invisible in any till report.
Retail contribution leaks away
More funding from
the stock you already have
Better pricing, placement, and channel routing lift net yield without a single extra donation. Every additional pound flows straight to the mission.
Illustrative economics, not a client result. Actual lift depends on donation mix, estate size, and current pricing practice. No named or identifiable charity is referenced.
Every item priced, placed,
and sold where it earns most
Six capabilities, one operating layer. It starts the moment a donation is photographed.
Computer vision intake
A volunteer photographs the item. Spark identifies brand, category, size, condition, and materials, pulls live sold prices from resale marketplaces such as eBay, Vinted, and Depop, assigns a price, prints the label, and creates a digital record. Intake drops from minutes of guesswork to about 30 seconds, and a new volunteer prices exactly like a 20-year veteran.
Every donation becomes a data object
Channel routing
For every item, Spark computes expected net yield across every channel: this shop's floor, another shop, eBay, your online store, bundling, or rag. It weighs sell-through probability, achievable price, listing labour, and transfer logistics, then tells the volunteer where the item should go. A premium jacket donated in the wrong catchment gets flagged for online or transfer. A fast-fashion top stays local at £3.
Right item, right channel, full value
Shop demand profiles and placement
Every shop develops a learned profile: what sells, at what price, how fast, by category and brand. Incoming donations are matched against those profiles, and Spark generates transfer manifests that ride your existing van network. Stock stops being an accident of where it was donated.
Placement by evidence, not geography
Automated lifecycle pricing
Every item has a clock. Spark knows the decay curve for its category in that location and executes markdowns, relists, channel switches, and outlet routing on schedule, without anyone deciding anything. Dead stock becomes structurally impossible.
Markdowns run themselves
Gift Aid maximisation
Donor-linked intake raises Gift Aid capture and keeps HMRC compliance automatic. It is pure incremental income, with no behaviour change asked of shop teams.
Compliance built into intake
The network layer
At scale, your chain generates one of the largest live datasets on secondhand pricing and demand in the UK. That unlocks donation supply forecasting by region and season, demand-driven donation appeals, and a valuation engine that gets smarter with every scan. The chain stops running hundreds of independent shops and starts operating one national inventory with hundreds of endpoints.
One national inventory
Prove it in 15 to 20 shops,
then scale what works
Start with intake and pricing
Roll out photograph-to-label intake in 15 to 20 shops. The pilot runs standalone, so there is no integration with your existing till or EPOS systems.
Measure against baseline shops
Track revenue per item in pilot shops against comparable baseline shops. Lift shows within weeks, not quarters.
Expand across the estate
Once the numbers prove out, switch on channel routing, transfers, and lifecycle pricing across the rest of the estate.
Charity retail FAQ
What retail directors ask before a pilot
The practical details about volunteers, tills, Gift Aid, data ownership, and how a pilot is structured.
Do volunteers need training to use Spark?
No. If a volunteer can take a photo, they can run intake. Spark handles identification, pricing, and labelling; the volunteer confirms the result and moves to the next item. A new starter and a 20-year veteran price identically.
Does Spark replace our EPOS or till systems?
No. The pilot runs standalone alongside your existing tills, so there is nothing to integrate before you start. Deeper integration is a decision for later, once the pilot has proved its numbers.
How does Gift Aid compliance work?
Intake links each item to its donor at the moment of donation, so Gift Aid capture rises without changing how shop teams work. The digital record Spark creates for every item keeps the HMRC audit trail complete and automatic.
Who owns the data Spark collects?
Your charity does. The item records, prices, donor links, and sales history generated through Spark belong to you.
How is a pilot structured and priced?
A pilot starts with intake and pricing in 15 to 20 shops, measured against comparable baseline shops. Pricing depends on the scale and scope of your estate, so the practical next step is a 30-minute conversation. Book a demo and we will shape it together.
Turn the stock you already have into funding for the work you exist to do
A 30-minute walkthrough of intake, pricing, and channel routing, shaped around your estate and your donation mix.
Pilot-first · 15 to 20 shops · no EPOS integration required