Getting people swapping instead of shopping

A new initiative is encouraging people to swap instead of shop.

Swopz Shop is a swapping community currently based in Bristol but that is hoping to change attitudes to consumerism far beyond the South West.

Jasmine de Savigny wanted to create a way to swap items 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in a way that was community-focussed and easy for everyone.

A beta version of the Swopz Shop website was the result. Focused on the Bristol area, Swopz lets people list unwanted items for a value in points. Once the items are swapped, the points gained can be spent on other items.

Jasmine, who launched the beta site in September 2020, wanted there to be an “incentive” to recycle, and to help change behaviours towards reusing and recycling.

Having worked as a user experience designer until the beginning of the pandemic, Jasmine came up with the idea a year ago, while sat with friend Claudia Effra-Hume in the Greenbank pub.

The mum from Fishponds worked on Swopz in her spare time but, after losing her contracted work at the start of the pandemic, began working on the site full time with a marketing assistant.

Swopz Shop is a point-based swapping site. Image: Swopz Shop

As well as being a free site to swap goods on, Swopz will also be a place to share skills in exchange for points to spend on unwanted goods or to learn other skills. It was important for the founders to not only make the site “stuff-focused”, but to ensure everyone could access goods and new skills if they owned less things.

“There’s also a charitable arm of Swopz Shop, because we want to working with environment and hardship charities,” says Jasmine. “We’re kind of the middle man. Hardship charities can give people they support points to spend on goods and eco charities can give stuff away via the site.”

Local train stations are already giving lost property to the site. Jasmine also hopes to set up a scheme which will allow people to trade in points to get discounts at local businesses.

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Read more: Bristol in 2020: Retail

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Swopz Shop has been running a Greener Advent Calendar, with a new sustainable tip revealed each day. It’s part of the educational part of the business, which hopes to teach people about recycling and the environment while giving advice on living on a low income and signposting to other services.

“My favourite things to do are repurposing discarded things and rummaging through charity shops. I think my obsession began at college,” says Jasmine.

“I now have a two-year-old and still recycle and refrain from buying anything new where possible.

“Although, it’s tough, as kids need so much stuff and their needs are constantly changing. There is a constant flow of things entering and leaving my home.

“The idea for Swopz was born from this, from the need to find new things and be able to swap them easily and for free.”

Main photo: Jasmine de Savigny

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