Vinnies NSW has officially entered the chat with an online platform selling second-hand clothes.

On Thursday, the website Vinnies Finds went live with more than 20,000 donated items ready to be snapped up by the public. While the concept is nothing new — Salvos kicked off its online store in 2011 — Vinnies Finds has the look and feel of the shmick online fashion retailers consumers love to scroll through.

Unlike other retailers and similarly to the in-store shopping experience, Vinnies Finds doesn’t have hundreds of each item up for grabs. Instead, the online store lists items by size, brand, colour and even the item’s condition, if you’re keen on looking for second-hand items that come new, with tags.

Vinnies Finds isn’t just aiming to make the thrifting experience more accessible for a digital audience, it aims to serve as another marketplace for luxury vintage fashion, akin to eBay and High End. The twist? Each time a Gucci blazer or a Fendi fur coat is snapped up, the money goes back into helping Vinnies’ wider charity efforts.

To launch the e-commerce site, Vinnies opened a warehouse in Stanmore and decked it out with the space, tools and staff needed to get products from the donations bins onto the website. This includes a photography station where five cameras work nonstop to make sure new items are displayed as they would be on a traditional online store.

Once the item has been purchased, it is then packaged up and shipped within the day, with free shipping for orders of $100 AUD or over.

While it’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work, CEO of the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW, , believed it was about time for the charity to enter the online market.

“We have a wonderful bricks-and-mortar network with 223 stores across New South Wales, and it was time for us to go onto the online platform,” she told PEDESTRIAN.TV.

“It allows us to speak to new customers and gives more convenience to our existing customers. We know more and more people are going to shop online. And so we wanted to leave a really high-end product, but they could do that and have the Vinnies experience at home or on the phone or wherever they are.”

As donations come in, Saiz says that staff and volunteers use a standardised pricing guideline which helps them decipher how much to charge.

“It depends on brand, on the quality of the item and the condition of the item itself,” Saiz shares.

“Depending on where they are, whether it be Sydney or up in the regional area, there’s some variance and flux on that pricing. If it’s a high-quality product, if it’s a rare product, staff and volunteers also do research.

“They’ll find information online, question what it’s worth relative to its condition, and then they’ll price it adequately, so that we are optimising the generous donations that people give us because we know it’s critical, because those funds go straight back into helping people in the community.”

While some designer items might be priced significantly higher than what you’d come to expect from your average Vinnies store, the prices are still competitive in the wider market. For example, Vinnies Finds is currently selling a vintage Fendi fur coat for $3,500 AUD rather than the $10,000 to 20,000 AUD price tag found online. There is also a pair of (gorgeous) red Valentino pumps for $150 AUD, which can retail for more than $1200 AUD.

There’s no doubt that over the last few years, popularity in secondhand clothing and the op-shop experience has skyrocketed. And, according to customers, so have the prices.

Organisations like Vinnies and Salvos have been widely criticised in recent years for raising prices to a point that makes it hard for low-income earners to purchase the second-hand goods.

While Saiz acknowledges the complaints, she says that ultimately, the goal is to optimise the value of the donations so it can go back in to funding the charity’s efforts across the country.

“We understand the sentiment, but really we’re pricing on quality and brand. So you might get a really high-end designer item for $50, but you’re not getting that for less than $500-$600 on the market.

“What we’re saying is, these are the donations that our supporters are giving us because they want us to be able to use that to help people. The reality is that the vast majority of our stock is still really reasonably priced at around $10 to $15, with higher-end products priced accordingly.”

It’s worth noting that while Vinnies is best known for its physical stores, the St Vincent de Paul Society is a charity which aims to help people experiencing poverty and disadvantage.

“If you are in need of help with clothing, food and bills, we’re giving that to you for free. That’s what we do every day,” Saiz explains.

“Last year, our members and volunteers across the state gave about $14 million worth of assistance with food, clothing, household bills, whatever people needed to keep their heads above water. It is the core of what we do and who we are.

“The shops have been around for 100 years, and they’ve had an evolution. They’ve changed around that time, but right now, it is really critical for us to keep the doors open on all those really important services we offer people experiencing poverty and disadvantage.

“We couldn’t run all those services without the surplus from those shops helping us do that.”

You can check out Vinnies Finds HERE.