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Are you regularly thanking your customers and donors?
If not, you’re missing out on building relationships and making your customers feel good about supporting your mission. When people feel like they’re part of a philanthropic community, they’re more likely to remember your business and keep coming back to shop.
If you don’t thank your regulars, your thrift store will just be one of many. We’ll help you stand out with six quick ideas for thanking customers — and they’re all low-cost or free.
Why Saying Thanks Might Not Be Top of Your List
You’re busy. Donations are piling up, volunteers need training, and someone just called to ask if you take mattresses (you don’t). But in the chaos, you might miss what’s happening over time:
- A regular donor drops off a bag of clothes once a month. You log the donation, give them a receipt, and move to the next person. Do you even remember them when they come in?
- A shopper finds a vintage jacket they love, and they’re willing to pay a lot of money for it. They check out, pay, and leave. But what if you told them their purchase just funded meals for three families?
- Your volunteer shows up every Tuesday for six months. You're grateful, but you've never actually told them how much their time matters.
A simple thank you in these situations can go a long way.
How To Thank Your Customers (Without Adding to Your Workload)
These ideas are easy, actionable, and won’t create more work.
1. Train Volunteers To Express Gratitude
Expressing gratitude out loud is your starting point. Instead of saying, “Have a nice day,” ask every volunteer to say, “Thank you for supporting our mission.”
With every transaction, remind customers that their purchase matters. It takes zero extra effort to say, and let’s face it, who doesn’t like knowing that they’ve done something positive for others? Similarly, you can also thank donors when they drop off donations.
2. Put “Thank You” on Your Receipts
Add one line to your receipt template: "Your purchase today helps [specific mission impact]."
Examples:
- "Your $23 purchase provided school supplies for two kids."
- "Thanks to you, we're one step closer to funding emergency housing."
- "You just supported job training for three people in our community."
These examples connect your customers’ spending to real outcomes.
How your POS solution helps: Use your thrift store point of sale (POS) system to configure your receipt with your mission message. Every receipt prints with your thank you automatically — both paper and digital.
3. Send a Follow-Up Email
After someone makes their first purchase or donation (and you collect their email address), send an email. Try something like:
Subject: Thanks for shopping with [Store Name]!
Body: Hi [Name],
Thanks for stopping by [Store Name] this week. Your purchase helps us [mission]. We're grateful you chose to shop with us.
Next time you're looking for [products from purchase history], we'd love to see you again.
Best,
[Your Name]
How your POS solution helps: A thrift-specific POS system captures customer emails at checkout and automatically sends a thank you message within 24 hours.
Related Read: 5 Email Marketing Strategies for Thrift Stores
4. Thank Donors When They Schedule
When someone books a donation pickup online, send an immediate thank you message: "Thanks for scheduling with us! We'll see you [day/time]."
After the pickup, send another: "Thank you for your donation! Your items will help us [mission]."
How your POS helps: Donation tracking and scheduling systems can send automatic confirmations and thank you messages at every step: when they book, the day before pickup, and after pickup. The donor gets three thank you messages — without you needing to remember to send any of them.
5. Create a Donor Wall for Regular Contributors
Put up a simple board near your entrance: "Thank you to this month's donors" with their names listed. You can update it monthly and share the impact your donors make.
Public recognition can be a low-cost (or free!) effort — and it helps donors feel seen. They might tell their friends about the highlight, or take a selfie and share on social media.
How your POS solution helps: Run a monthly donor report to see everyone who contributed that month. Print it and post your donors’ names!
6. Host a Customer Appreciation Day
Pick a day of the week and offer 20% off everything. You could have coffee and donuts available, and put up a banner that says “Thank you for supporting our mission.”
This gives you a designated time to focus on gratitude. It’s an event, so you can plan in advance, making sure you have enough staff on hand.
How your POS solution helps: Send one email blast to your thrift store’s customer database: "Customer Appreciation Day — 20% off everything this Saturday." If you’re already storing customers’ email addresses in your POS system, building a list should be a low lift.
Make Saying Thank You Easy
Your customers aren’t just buying your goods or dropping off donations. They’re supporting a worthy cause, and they should know how much it matters.
Many of the ideas above can be automated with the right system and workflows. Your thrift store POS system should handle most of this:
- Automatic thank you emails after first purchases
- Donation confirmation and follow-up messages
- Receipt footers with mission impact
- Customer-facing screens showing appreciation
- Email lists for events and promotions
You handle the personal touches:
- Genuine gratitude expressed at checkout
- Handwritten notes for major donors
- Staff recognition for volunteers
- Social media shoutouts
Your POS system does the heavy lifting, and you add the human touch.
Thank Your Customers With ThriftCart
Without a POS system, you're tracking everything manually: writing down emails, remembering donor counts, and trying to follow up with hundreds of people. Thanking your customers is easier with a POS system built for thrift stores.
Enter ThriftCart. On top of standard point of sale features, our thrift-specific POS system lets you track and manage donations, print custom receipts, and send thank you messages via email or SMS.
To see it in action, schedule a software demo with one of our thrift store experts today.
