In 2019, Americans donated $449.64 billion to charitable organizations in the United States, with individuals contributing almost 69%. Giving to charity is currently rising at around one-third the rate of the stock market as people begin to see the value in supporting their local communities once again.
As consumers begin to pay attention to not only what you offer, but also how you sell it, this urge to contribute transfers directly into online retail. According to PWC study, 73 percent of shoppers say their shopping experience influences their purchasing decisions. Conscious consumerism is on the rise, and customers are increasingly looking for products that connect with their values.
According to the Case Foundation's Millennial Impact Report, millennials are more inclined than any previous generation to donate.
An estimated 84% employees donated to charity, and 70% volunteered for more than an hour in their industry or community. As this generation gets older, this number is likely to rise. Ecommerce and brick-and-mortar businesses both stand to benefit from the implementation of tactics that promote this shift.
ShoppingGives, EcoCart, and RoundUp, all of which are leading the push to assist merchants and their customers giving back to their communities, are now joining with BigCommerce to support contributions and social giving in online retail.
Customers who opt-in to donations feel more connected to their purchase and in turn, convert more, spend more, and come back sooner and more often.
ShoppingGives provides some high level performance expectations in the numbers below. With a turn towards responsible consumerism we expect these numbers to rise over the next 5 years.
Avg Conversion Rate Increase
Avg Order Value Increase
Avg LTV increase
Above: The script from Shopping Gives creates a box on your checkout and/or product pages to notify customers of the program. You can choose where to engage the shopper with most apps I reviewed.
Shopping Gives
For brands who are looking to make an impact, ShoppingGives can help you create a fully-customized giving experience and enables you to support over 1.5M US-based nonprofit organizations. The app is currently available to brands that are US-based and/or utilize USD as their main currency, and have an annual revenue of $10M and above. ShoppingGives is also in development on a native app for BigCommerce that will make their services available to brands of all sizes.
ShoppingGives solves for three core pillars -- cause marketing regulation, value alignment with customers, and integrated marketing. Providing donation solutions to help merchants align each purchase with their customers’ values, merchants can also boost customer loyalty, lifetime value, and average order value (AOV). Involving customers in the giving can create more engaging and authentic interactions with customers, all while making a positive impact.
ShoppingGives provides a great white paper on Cause marketing use cases. Be sure to check it out here
I have recently begun working with ShoppingGives on several client apps in preparation for the holidays. Installation is easy and accounting seems to be acceptable with a simple script needed added to the page template and a admin app to view transactions as shown below.
You can easily install the Change Commerce App from Shopping Gives through the App store on both Shopify and BigCommerce. If you need assistance feel free to reach out and I will install this app for FREE on either platform.
I will be updating this post as I investigate the nuances of each of the programs. Feel free to leave a comment for your favorite Cause Marketing platform and I will be happy to check it out.
I have no affiliation with Shopping Gives but I am a Shopify and BigCommerce Developer Partner.