Feeling a little guilty about the growing expense of your online shopping habit? You are not alone. National Australia Bank estimates we spent more than $15 billion shopping online in the year to August.
That proves you can never have too many shoes.
But what if your online spending could somehow contribute to the greater good? A Brisbane couple asked themselves that question and the result was The Generous Shopper, a new charity platform.
Sarah and Arunava Chatterjee are the brains behind the website, which harnesses the power of the internet and online shopping to help charities. The duo have already partnered with over 900 online retailers – all of whom give a percentage of their sales to a charity of your choosing.
Sarah Chatterjee, co-founder of The Generous Shopper. PHOTO:
“Once people register on The Generous Shopper website, there are two ways they can shop,” Ms Chatterjee told The City Journal.
“Firstly, by downloading a plug-in that will work behind their browser. Then, once they are on one of our shopping partner websites, the plug-in will automatically detect their purchase and set aside a percentage of their spending as a donation to one of our charities.
“The other way that they can shop is by going through all of the links on our website. Through our search engine, shoppers can narrow down categories, locations and whether or not a retailer ships to Australia.”
Shoppers can access all partner retailers through The Generous Shopper website. The downloaded plug-in is limited to around 240 online stores.
Consumers can log in to the philanthropic e-commerce platform and click on the ‘My Generosity’ tab to find out how much money is going toward each of the charities and how those charities are using the donations. Shoppers will also be able to keep track of their contributions through the plug-in and on the website.
While this platform is a first for Australia, it is not new to European retailers.
“When we explained the concept and showed retailers the way it was working overseas, so many were keen to just jump on board straight away and get involved,” Ms Chatterjee said.
Similar to the retailers, it seems every day Aussies are already making purchases through The Generous Shopper. After just a week of launching the site had had hundreds of visits.
Courtesy of ‘The Generous Shopper’
The Generous Shopper partnered with seven Australian charities on launch: Assist a Sista, Beyond Blue, CARE Australia, Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Destiny Rescue, Good Return and Habitat for Humanity.
Corporate partnerships executive at CARE Australia Lyrian Fleming-Parsley believes these small donations could create a huge impact.
“We work with poor communities overseas. We have a particular focus on women and girls who, when we help lift them out of poverty, generally bring their whole communities – and countries, even – out of poverty,” she said.
“The money that would be raised by customers through The Generous Shopper would go to our programs that work directly with communities, on the ground, helping women and families.
“As an example, a $4 donation can provide a student in Zimbabwe with clean water, and just $18 can provide a Zimbabwean family with enough water purification sachets to provide clean water for a month.”
Ms Fleming-Parsley believes consumers should think more about how their every day choices can change the lives of those who are struggling.
“These people are impacted by our decisions and our purchasing power.”
Sarah Chatterjee agrees with this notion and urgesd people to register.
“I think Australians are really a giving bunch and I think this is a fantastic way for people to keeping shopping online as they normally would.
“They don’t have to change anything, they don’t have to buy anything they wouldn’t normally buy, they just have to go ahead and shop with the brands they already know and love and in the process raise money for a good cause,” she said.
The husband-and-wife power team are aiming to have 50,000 Australians signed up to the website by the first year.
