Oxfam is trialling an iPhone app in 10 of its Manchester shops which enables shoppers to discover the history of items.

Oxfam Shelflife launched on 27 February and is free to download. By scanning QR codes on items in store shoppers can read the description placed by the previous owner of the product when it was donated.

Sarah Farquhar, head of retail said: “We’ve found that items with a interesting story behind them are instantly more appealing to our customers so we hope Oxfam Shelflife will encourage people to love items for longer.”

An initial trial of the use of QR codes in a Manchester shop last autumn increased turnover for the Oxfam shop by 41 per cent.

The app is powered by Tales of Things initiative, a project which aims to preserve memories of things through electronic tagging. The project is a collaboration between Brunel University, Edinburgh College of Art, University college London, University of Dundee and University of Salford and is funded by £1.4m grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Watch the video showing how the app works below: