GoodwillFinds — the new resale marketplace from nonprofit thrift store chain Goodwill — has added two retail veterans to its C-suite and onboarded three new Goodwill member organizations (representing more than 50 retail stores) to the platform.
Launched in October 2022, GoodwillFinds aims to bring the 120-year-old Goodwill mission and thrifting experience to digital shoppers. In less than five months, the platform already has sold nearly 200,000 items, and with more Goodwill member organizations coming on board, it plans to scale the number of items available in the marketplace to nearly 1 million by the end of 2023.
Aiding that effort will be two new additions to the organization’s leadership team — Nicolas Genest, who joins as Chief Technology Officer, and new Chief Revenue Officer Jim Davis. Genest previously held roles at Modcloth, Walmart U.S. Ecommerce and The RealReal, and will lead all technology, product, data analytics and IT services. Also an ecommerce veteran, Davis has held senior positions at Office Depot, Dell and Urban Outfitters. He will lead all revenue-generating aspects of the platform, including performance marketing, demand generation, site merchandising and operations, customer experience and customer success.
“We’re rapidly expanding our resale platform this year, providing unparalleled value to consumers in order to further fund Goodwill’s mission of transforming lives through the dignity of work and scale our environmental impact,” said Matthew Kaness, CEO of GoodwillFinds in a statement. “I have confidence that Nicolas and Jim will provide the leadership necessary to achieve these goals. Both bring deep expertise that will accelerate build-out and roadmap, which ultimately fuel the essential programs of local Goodwill organizations.”
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At the same time, GoodwillFinds also has onboarded three of these Goodwill member organizations to the platform. The larger Goodwill organization operates under a federated store model (essentially the nonprofit equivalent of a franchise system), wherein regional affiliates each operate their own independent 501(c)(3)s and then pay a membership fee to Goodwill Industries. GoodwillFinds.com is set up the same way, as an affiliate within Goodwill Industries, and was founded by six Goodwill member groups that together represent 338 stores.
Now, Goodwill Industries of South Florida, Goodwill Akron and Goodwill Industries of Greater Cleveland and East Central Ohio are joining the online effort and will begin contributing products from their more than 50 stores to the site.
“Our customer is voting yes to non-apparel items, to the point that demand is outstripping supply — collectibles, handbags, media, electronics, books, jewelry and vintage items that are a little bit easier to source. like Air Jordans,” Kaness shared in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “So on the non-apparel side we’re working hard with our Goodwill members who are selling on the platform to help them identify and curate more donations within those categories to get them onto the site. When you get into clothing and accessories, anything size-based, we’re still early in building our catalog because with apparel you need a critical mass. It’s not just offering different styles and silhouettes and colorways; there’s also a size run within each of those items that we have to be able to cover. So we’re still building that critical mass.”
The addition of three new Goodwill members will certainly aid that effort, and next month, the platform will onboard three additional Goodwill member organizations, more than doubling the scale of its marketplace.
