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A12 BUSINESS
Wednesday 5 OctOber 2022

A Goodwill store sign is shown in Berkeley, Calif., Tuesday, March 9, 2021.
Associated Press

Iconic Goodwill gets serious with online

for thrifters

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and Canadian Goodwill don’t clean it. If it is very
AP Retail Writer stores to drop them off for dirty or not good quality,
NEW YORK (AP) — Thrift- now. But Kaness said that they won’t sell it. Items des-
ers who flock to Goodwill as the business expands, ignated for online will then
stores will now be able to Goodwill will eventually of- be digitized. Purchases
do more of their treasure fer that service. will either be packed and
hunting online. The move comes as the shipped from the store or a
The 120-year-old nonprofit second-hand clothing busi- cluster of stores’ mini-ware-
organization on Tuesday ness is expected to grow houses.
launched GoodwillFinds, a 16 times faster than the A spokeswoman for the
newly incorporated shop- broader retail clothing sec- online venture said that
ping venture that is making tor by 2026, according to because items from Good-
roughly 100,000 donated a report by research firm willFinds ship from a variety
items available for pur- GlobalData for Thredup. of Goodwill locations, ship-
chase online and expand- It’s also happening at a ping options and fees will
ing Goodwill’s internet time when surging inflation vary per item. During the
presence that until now is pushing shoppers to be checkout process, custom-
had been limited to auc- thriftier. ers will be offered the ship-
tion sites like ShopGoodwill. “Our new social enterprise ping options available for
com or individual stores makes it easier for the con- their items based on their
selling donations online via scious consumer to shop shipping address. She said
eBay and Amazon. sustainably online, while that GoodwillFinds accepts
GoodwillFinds’ goal is to heightening the thrifting ex- returns for items that ar-
have 1 million items on perience they’ve come to rive damaged or if there’s
its site in a few years, said love at Goodwill,” Kaness an inaccurate or incorrect
Matthew Kannes, newly said. item in the customer’s or-
appointed CEO of online In 2021, retail revenue from der.
shopping arm, which fea- donations to Goodwill was The vision for Goodwill-
tures search tools that let more than $5.4 billion, the Finds came from a consor-
shoppers browse by cat- organization said. Good- tium of Goodwill members
egory. Eventually Good- willFinds follows in the foot- throughout the country,
willFinds will be able to be steps of ShopGoodwill. including Evergreen Good-
personalized based on a com, which launched in will of Northwest Washing-
customer’s past purchases. 1999 and sells many items ton, which wanted to tap
The new venture will sup- via auction. into the organization’s full
port Goodwill Industries In- “Goodwill is a very big part potential.
ternational Inc. by helping of the second-hand mar- Daryl Campbell, the CEO
fund its community-based ket, but it’s been focused of Evergreen Goodwill of
programs across the U.S. on stores. That is its heri- Northwest Washington,
provide professional train- tage,” said Neil Saunders, said he expects that reve-
ing, job placement and managing director at Glo- nue for his consortium of 24
youth mentorship. It should balData Retail, “Online has stores in his area will double
also increase donations, been an afterthought and from the $24 million it did
while also helping to ex- done very informally with last year within the next five
pand its base of customers. the regions.” years because of the cen-
Unlike rivals like Thredup Karness said that when tralized online approach.
and Poshmark, customers shoppers donate to the He also predicts that he will
cannot use GoodwillFinds stores, workers will figure be able to double its online
to make donations and will out which item will be des- business to 32% of its con-
still have to visit one of the ignated online. Workers in- sortium’s sales in the next
organization’s 3,300 U.S. spect each item but they few years.q