You might not know it, but your next shopping spree could change someone’s life.

While spending money on new clothes or gadgets may be a no-brainer, shoppers often find it more difficult to fork out money to those who actually need it.

• Ten charitable things that don’t involve ice buckets
• It’s time to budget for the Christmas spend now

To fix this problem, a new online platform has arrived to circumvent the logistical challenges of giving back by making shopping and donating a seamless process.

The Generous Shopper works as a free website plugin, linking shoppers to more than 900 retailers (including The Iconic, ASOS, Estee Lauder and Dan Murphy’s) who have all agreed to donate a percentage of the purchase price to charity.

“Australians are fantastic online shoppers, every year we spend billions online. We spend more per capita than the US,” The Generous Shopper co-founder Sarah Chatterjee explains.

“We just want to build a huge tribe of generous shoppers that buy online and raise money for charity without it costing them an extra cent.”

To get involved:

1. Head to The Generous Shopper website and register with your name and email.

2. Choose which charities you want to support – right now there are seven options.

3. Download the plugin which will sit behind your browser and detect when you’re on a generous shopper partner website. You can also shop directly through the website.

Although ingenious, The Generous Shopper isn’t the first retailer to help charity. Here are other stores where you can give back while indulging in some retail therapy.

Witchery

Witchery has worked closely with the Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation for nearly 15 years and, in recent years, that partnership has transformed into an anticipated sartorial event.

The Witchery White Shirt Campaign launches every year in April, giving customers the chance to buy a chic white shirt in the store. All proceeds go to the OCRF and the money raised by the campaign in the past has funded the appointment of three full-time research scientists and the purchase of vital medical equipment.

Cotton On

Next time you head to the popular chain store to pick up some basics, you might notice an array of smaller items at the checkout counter. The Cotton On Group sells bottles of water, accessories or reusable shopping bags in store to support the Cotton On Foundation, which works with Ugandan communities to help build a healthy, sustainable future.

All proceeds from the sale of the add-on items, which are usually priced around $2, goes towards improving health, education, infrastructure and sustainability in the developing world.

Sportsgirl

Shopping the Butterfly Range of bracelets, bags, necklaces and key rings will contribute money to the Butterfly Foundation, which works to assist eating disorder sufferers.

The retailer has raised more than $1.7 million for the Foundation to date and also promotes positive body image amongst young women by ensuring its sizing range is broad and its models are a healthy weight.