Transforming Retail Award Winners: Thriftify – Most Sustainable category

Awards sponsored by Talkdesk

We asked all our winners in this year’s Transforming Retail Awards to tell us how they felt about winning their category. So here is our Q & A with Thriftify on their plans for the future.

How do you feel about winning this Award?

It feels very empowering to be recognised as a leader in the sustainability innovation space. Thriftify is all about encouraging people to be more ethical in their online purchasing and switch to a more sustainable consumption pattern and it’s great when consumers react to this positively. 

Timur Negru, COO, Thriftify

Why do you think your entry stood out?

Every year charity shops receive over 150 million donations from the general public, making them the largest source of sustainable goods. Charity shop donations are so high that many sell items in bulk for recycling, a problem made worse by Covid-19, with an increase in donations and shop closures.

In the face of a climate catastrophe, Thriftify is aiming to provide a solution for a growing niche of customers who not only want to support good causes, but who want to join the fight against climate change and become sustainable in their shopping habits.

The fast fashion industry alone is responsible for 10% of all global emissions, with up to 60% of clothes being sent to landfill within one year of being purchased. As more consumers become aware of the damaging effects of the fashion industry they are moving to sustainable solutions – Thriftify is targeting this growing market which is expected to be larger than the luxury fashion segment by 2022.


What plans do you have for your company in the coming year?

We have recently launched our Thriftify Retail Android app. The app will use some exciting AI features which will allow our charity partners to upload their physical donations a lot faster as well as allow us to onboard more charities every month. We are also in the process of a full re-brand as well as an overhaul of our consumer-facing site – www.thriftify.co.uk.