Round Up Donations at your Non-Profit Thrift Store
Your customers love you!
Most people shop at a store because they like what the store has to offer them. But if you're running a non-profit thrift store, a large percentage of your customers don't just like what they're getting, they also like you and what you're doing. Now, most thrift shoppers are looking for a great deal - and you're probably great at giving them a deal. But if you ask them for a bit more, many of them are willing to give.
Round-up, yes please!
Many for-profit stores will prompt customers to round up their purchase to the nearest dollar to support some local charity. While many people will agree to toss in a few cents, there is a little disconnect between the store you're shopping at and the donation you're making. But at your thrift store, there's no disconnect. They know their purchase is going to support your mission, so doing a round-up donation is doubling-down, rather than an annoyance. In fact, when asked, about 60% of customers in stores using ThriftCart agree to a round-up donation. The average round-up donation size is $0.50. So, if you're asking 1000 customers per month, you'd expect about 600 round up donations, bringing in an extra $300. Not only that, but customers feel good about themselves when they donate to your store, meaning they'll be coming back for more!
Make life easy for your cashiers
One reason that cashiers don't like to ask for round-up donations is that they don't like doing subtraction. If the total is $11.32 and the customer wants to round-up, the cashier either needs to pull out a calculator to do $12.00 - $11.32, or the cashier needs to remember how to do borrowing, back from their elementary school days. (It's $0.68, in case you were about to get out your calculator.) So, cashiers may be reluctant to ask the question. However, with ThriftCart, you can set up easy buttons for the cashiers that do the math for them. Just press than round up to the nearest dollar button, and it will add a donation of the appropriate amount. (You can optionally even hide the tender buttons underneath a round up - yes/no button, forcing the cashier to make a round-up selection before taking payment.)
Super-charge round-up donations with a credit card machine
If you use ThriftCart and use Worldpay for credit card processing, you can get the Verifone MX915 TriPOS Cloud credit card machine. Among many other great features,
the machine can prompt the customer for a round-up donation, saving the cashier from having to remember. Not only that, but the credit card gets the same percentage of yes responses as if your cashier had asked.
