GoodwillFinds.com, the ecommerce platform launched last year to help Goodwill stores sell online, announced today that it has added four Goodwill regional members to its marketplace.
The addition of the new regional members – Tacoma, Kansas, Miami, and Indianapolis – expands the reach of the online platform to over 500 individual Goodwill stores.
“We are seeing remarkable support and excitement about shopping with purpose on GoodwillFinds.com,” said GoodwillFinds CEO Matt Kaness, in a statement announcing the expansion. The platform’s growth, Kaness said, “not only affirms consumers’ growing interest in shopping secondhand online, but also their preference to consciously shop values-first, as their purchases directly support the Goodwill mission.”
GoodwillFinds, which, like Goodwill stores, operates as a non-profit, was created by a group of Goodwill members who wanted to form an online resale site to better leverage the combined online potential of their stores.
Goodwill Industries is made up of 155 individual members who serve specific regions. Many of those regions had already been selling online for years, but much of the online sales occurred on outside platforms such as eBay. GoodwillFinds was created in part to give the stores a way to have a direct relationship with online customers, and to be able to take advantage of analytics that help drive sales.
GoodwillFinds is enjoying growth and strong sell-through of the merchandise on its platform due to demand from consumers who are seeking out resale to find special or vintage items, or to find a deal, Jim Davis, chief revenue officer of GoodwillFinds, said in an interview.
The accelerating demand for resale is being driven, in part, Davis said, “by younger consumers who grew up shopping thrift, and who have always seen secondhand as an opportunity to find great treasures.”
There also is a group of consumers who chose Goodwill and GoodwillFinds because of the job training and charity mission of Goodwill, or because of sustainability concerns and the environmental benefit “that comes out of buying things that already exist versus having to go out and buy new,” Davis said. “In many ways they’re the anti-fast-fashion group,” he said.
GoodwillFinds, and Goodwill stores and secondhand sellers in general are benefitting from a booming resale market. The recommerce market is projected to reach $188,5 billion this year, and grow by 58% over the next five years to hit $276 billion by 2028, according to the 2023 Recommerce Report released last month by online marketplace OfferUp.
That report, based on data and analytics from GlobalData, consumer surveys, and other sources, found that 85% of shoppers have bought or sold secondhand items over the past year, with 27% of them doing so for the first time.
As GoodwillFinds expands, Davis said, it can “create scale across Goodwills. It’s allowing us to do things like start to negotiate with carriers like FedEx
FDX
Since its launch in October, 2022, GoodwillFinds has sold over 675,000 items online for member Goodwill stores. It has seen 1000% growth over the past year in consumer engagement with its weekly newsletter, which now has over 500,000 subscribers.
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