Cybertill has won the ‘EPoS Innovation’ category at the Retail Systems Awards for its ‘Advanced Gift Aid’* development for charity retailers. Cybertill’s entry showcased how charity retailer, Dove House Hospice, has profited from deploying Cybertill’s Advanced Gift Aid module by increasing gift aid** revenues and amongst many other benefits.
Cybertill is the leading supplier of gift aid software and EPoS (electronic point of sale) software to charities in the UK, with an estimated 1 in 3 UK charity shops using Cybertill. Dove House Hospice, a charity retailer in the Hull area with 31 shops, has achieved some outstanding results by using Cybertill’s new Advanced Gift Aid software. For example on average Dove House have increased gift aid revenue by a further 20%, reduced fraud in-store and are now able to manage stock on donated goods in store. This last year Dove House has been able to claim in excess of £100,000 in gift aid from HMRC.
According to Marisa Haines, Retail Division Manager at Dove House Hospice, “Initially we were apprehensive, introducing this level of technology into our stores, as many of our shop staff are voluntary. But they welcomed it with open arms, and the response from customers as well as staff has been overwhelming. Customers have commented on how professionally run our shops are, and what good customer service we have. I believe this is solely due to Advanced Gift Aid doing the thinking for the till operative allowing them time to really serve our customers.”
Founder and CEO of Cybertill, Ian Tomlinson, said, “On today’s high streets charity shops actively compete with mainstream independent and multiple retailers for a share of the consumer’s wallet. With the current economic environment this is not without its challenges; from charity retailers operating on much tighter budgets than their peers and to the quality of many donations deteriorating as we, the public, hold on to clothes and other items for longer before donating them, as many households continue to feel the economic pinch. With that in mind we’re delighted that Cybertill’s EPoS and gift aid software has helped Dove House Hospice improve the efficiency of its business and helped raise even more money. And we are also delighted that Cybertill’s advancement in of its charity EPoS software has been recognised by the Retail Systems Awards, especially considering they received a record number of entries in this category in 2012.”
* Before Advanced Gift Aid charity retailers would have two tags on items in store. One would be price, which is often hand written, thus it was open to manipulation, and the other (if the goods had been gift aided) with a bar code carrying the donor ID. Advanced Gift Aid is a single bar code which carries the product price, and description (identifying the category and sub-category [i.e. ladieswear and ladieswear jackets respectively]. Thus when at the point of sale the price always goes through as set by management and gift aid is always captured.
** Many charities now reclaim Gift-Aid on donated goods in their charity shops. Gift-Aid allows charities to reclaim the tax paid on donated goods by UK taxpayers (with donors’ consent), typically 25p in every pound. HMRC has set out strict guidelines on the procedures around Gift-Aid and the reclaim process is administratively intensive. Cybertill has introduced Advanced Gift-Aid software, which integrates with its retail point of sale system, and this automates Gift-Aid processes for charities and in addition guarantees to eradicate all missed Gift-Aid sales and increase the revenue a charity takes through Gift-Aid.
