Since the start of 2023 to date, we have helped selling partners donate products worth more than €10 million* to charitable organisations across Italy. These donations gave a second life to unsold items by keeping them in-use, helped to create a more circular economy, and provided charities and those they serve with everything from everyday essentials to useful extras.
We enable third-party sellers to donate unsold products through our FBA Donations programme. By using FBA Donations, we remove key donation barriers for sellers by identifying charities in need and managing the cost and logistics of shipping products to those charities.
Since its launch in 2021, FBA Donations has supported 11 charities in Italy that are helping people in need and local communities across the country. We improved FBA Donations in 2023 by automating additional processes, making it even easier and faster for sellers to manage their inventory and donate at scale, as well as for charities to receive more items based on their scope and on their logistics and distribution capacity.
"Donations are a key part of Amazon's commitment to support communities in which we operate, and this also includes donating unsold products that can be essential for people in need", said Mariangela Marseglia, VP and Country Manager for Amazon.it and Amazon.es. "In recent years, partly due to inflation, which has reduced the purchasing power of Italians, charities have received an increasing number of requests for basic needs. We are proud to contribute to these needs by promoting actions that also keep products in use and reduce waste.”
The first recipient of Amazon's FBA Donations was LILT (Italian League for the Fight against Cancer), to which selling partners donated products worth €295,000 in 2021 and 2022 to support its Child Care programme, which provides support to families affected by childhood cancer.
Thanks to the introduction in 2023 of new automated processes that helped scale the programme, the list of recipients was enlarged to Progetto Arca, Fondazione ANT, ENPA, Hope for Ukraine, Centro Five, and Banco Alimentare Piemonte. In 2024, the list was joined by Anteas, Cooperativa Mirafiori, and Cooperativa Si Può Fare. Charities have received items ranging from books, toys, furniture, and electronics to textiles, clothing, personal care products, and food supplements.
Thanks to FBA Donations, charities have been able to sustain their projects and better support those in need in the local communities in which they operate.
Igor Kruglyk, from Hope Ukraine, said: “The items received helped 293,900 beneficiaries. The articles were shipped to Ukraine's most affected regions - Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Mykolaiv - and were used in hospitals, refugee shelters, local communities, and small villages. The distribution was planned strategically to reach those who needed it most. We would like to express our deep gratitude for the support received from Amazon Italy: the donations made through the FBA Donations programme have had a significant impact on the affected communities and have helped to improve the situation of those in difficult conditions.”
Raffaella Pannuti, President Fondazione ANT Italia ONLUS, said: “Participation in Amazon's donation programme enabled us to receive about 40,000 useful items, which we carefully selected and made available to patients for home care. It was a great help to ANT's initiatives related to cancer prevention and awareness-raising in schools and businesses. As president of the ANT Foundation, I can only thank Amazon, which has chosen to be close to us and, through us, to our patients.”
A second life for returned and unsold products
We have designed our systems to maximise use and reuse of products, including returns and unsold products, while minimising waste. The guiding principle is simple and has a positive impact both economically and environmentally: if a product can have a useful purpose, we want it to be used.
We want our customers to be completely satisfied with their purchase. That’s why we provide comprehensive product information, including photos, videos and customer reviews, to help customers make more informed buying decisions. However, if a customer is unsatisfied with their purchase, we offer a hassle-free returns process.
Returned items are put through a detailed inspection process, and if the product meets our high-quality standards, the item is tagged as “new” and re-listed for sale. Most returned products meet this bar and are put back on the digital shelves for other customers. If a product doesn’t meet the standards for “new” goods, it will go through further inspection and, depending on its condition, could be resold as “used” through Amazon Warehouse, returned to the supplier, or donated to charity.
Donations are an important tool to give products a second life. Throughout Europe, we work with local food banks and other nonprofit organisations that broker product donations to those in need. In 2023, together with our selling partners, we donated more than 160 million items to people in need globally, including technology products, appliances, and clothing to charities across Europe and the United States.
*Based on average sale price on Amazon.it.
