It’s Hospice Care Week, a time to celebrate the brilliant work hospices do and the people who do it. This year’s theme is all about the importance of hospice retail, so we asked our e-Commerce Manager, Tania, to tell us about a typical day.

“I’ve been the e-Commerce Manager for St Wilfrid’s for five years, and my working day is still as varied as donations!

We had no online selling presence before I started, and it’s grown from a one-person operation selling on eBay, to a team of five staff and volunteers, listing hundreds of new items a week.

The thrill and excitement I still feel when I find something of great value to list online doesn’t fade.

The day usually starts with a squirrel through the Donation Centre, seeing if any goodies to sell online were missed from the night before. I answer customer messages on all platforms; eBay, Depop, Vinted and Etsy. My mobile usually pings with WhatsApp messages from Shop Managers, asking for evaluations on exciting donations they have had in their shops.

I use an AI photography editing app, which saves time and money having to create backdrops for our listings. The team and I use this on a mixture of items, but mainly on furniture. I organise the online stock for my team, delegating which item to sell on which platform.

Finding an item’s optimum value can vary – there is no right or wrong answer but just a build-up of experience.

I create curated colour capsules on our Etsy shop, and items sold on our Etsy have been shipped to their new owners in over 65 different countries!

As you can imagine, this uses a lot of packaging, and since having a Post Room Assistant, I have researched methods of saving money and our global footprint. You can usually find me rummaging through the cardboard collection bins, getting overly excited over a good quality box we can reuse to pack a parcel!

We are always looking for exciting, unusual and saleable items to list online, so please spread the word.”

If you’d like to make a donation to sell online, please visit our Donation Centre in Moy Avenue and ask for a member of staff from the e-Commerce Team.