Give as You Live turns online shopping into charity action

Consumers love to shop online for themselves, but they also love to give to their favourite charities. Now, a new browser-based application will let them do both at the same time.

ShopSafe reports that more than 1,000 etailers, including some of the U.K.'s best-known brands, will be participating in Give as You Live, a charity drive that will see famous vendors such as Tesco, Debenhams and Thomas Cook donating money to charity each time a consumer makes an online purchase.

The drive will support more than 200,000 charities, and customers can choose their preferred causes when they download the Give as You Live app.

The app doesn't ask consumers to pay extra - instead, the charitable donations are made by the retailers themselves. Each time you go through an online checkout with your shopping cart, the app will calculate 2.5 percent of your total and the retailer will give that sum to the charity of your choice. Consumers get to shop while giving back, and retailers can attract new shoppers with promotions and deals benefiting a good cause.

Since more than 50 percent of U.K. adults are now shopping online, Give as You Live has the potential to contribute a massive sum of money to charitible causes around the world.