GoodwillFinds is trying to keep up with ‘rocket ship’ demand amid growing pains and funding constraints
A more than 100-year-old business with roots in brick-and-mortar retail, Goodwill took steps to modernize in 2022 with its online marketplace GoodwillFinds. Three years in, demand for the site is a “rocket ship,” GoodwillFinds CEO Matthew Kaness told Modern Retail. However, there’s one problem, he acknowledged: “Our demand is outstripping the supply.”
GoodwillFinds is a small team of employees and contractors supporting the only fixed-price e-commerce resale operation dedicated to the Goodwill network. Goodwill functions as a federation of 153 independent organizations across the U.S. and Canada, and until a few years ago, most of its 3,000 stores had very little experience with e-commerce outside of auctions. GoodwillFinds helps these organizations come online by uploading their store inventory to an online catalog, managing customer service and dealing with delivery.
Since 2022, GoodwillFinds has delivered over $65 million in gross merchandise value for local Goodwill resellers. Since launch, more than 1 million items have been listed across apparel, electronics, jewelry and home. And yet — unlike other major players in online resale, like ThredUp or eBay — Goodwill is a nonprofit. That affects its ability to grow in a market that’s increasingly crowded, and valued in the billions of dollars.
“We are severely funding constrained [at GoodwillFinds], because we have no equity to sell,” Kaness explained. “We’re relying exclusively on the good will, pun intended, of local Goodwills to fund us. So, we’re growing fast, but we could be growing even faster.”
GoodwillFinds started from scratch, and it has made significant progress since 2022. It’s on track to hit half a million shoppers this year, and it grew its number of Goodwill regions from four in 2022 to 13 in 2023 and 18 in 2024. It aims to more than double this to 40 by the year’s end. Its average order value is currently $120. Recently, GoodwillFinds entered into more higher-priced categories like collectibles and home decor, which has helped its repeat purchase rate go up, according to Kaness.
Still, GoodwillFinds is playing catch-up to other industries and companies that have developed robust e-commerce businesses in the last 30 years. “We’re in the early stages of that learning curve that other companies and industries have already had to go through because of pressure from Amazon,” Kaness said. “There’s a giant digital transformation that we’re trying to support and participate in.”
GoodwillFinds is working with local Goodwills to help them understand the ins and outs of e-commerce. It is also “trying to bring in more automation and more resources” to deliver value for Goodwills at the highest margins possible, Kaness explained. For instance, in January, GoodwillFinds rolled out an AI chatbot called Gem, which helps customers with questions about products, returns and order statuses. “That’s now handling over 70% of our inbound contacts,” Kaness said.
Kaness estimates that about 10% of Goodwill’s total revenue comes from online sales. But, he explained, “If we can unlock online growth, … we could go to a future where 25%, 30%, 50% of resale revenue comes from online versus stores.”
“That’s a massive opportunity for the Goodwill network,” he added.
Dylan Carden, a research analyst at William Blair, said he is rooting for GoodwillFinds but worries that its “biggest issue is going to be profitability,” especially if it’s selling low-priced goods and bringing on individual Goodwills one at a time. Kaness told Modern Retail that he believes, with 40 regions, GoodwillFinds can grow listings enough to “achieve the scale needed to break even.”
Carden said that it’s “more sustainable” for GoodwillFinds to branch out into categories with high AOVs, like jewelry and luxury. Still, he said it could be difficult for GoodwillFinds to “beat eBay at this game.” “Ebay is so established here. You’re kind of going off a gorilla there,” Carden said. “They have a better search feature. … It’s going to be hard to make waves [if you’re GoodwillFinds], would be my initial thought.”
Kaness acknowledged that GoodwillFinds still has a ways to go in today’s omnichannel retail environment. Still, he’s confident in his team and is looking forward to the future.
“In any startup, you’re just trying to hit milestones,” Kaness said. “I’m really proud of the team and the platform we’ve built. We’ve proved out the demand and we’ve delivered really high value on the donations we resell.”
This story has been updated to clarify and correct a few stats about GoodwillFinds’ business. Since launch, more than 1 million items have been listed across apparel, electronics, jewelry and home — not 1 million items currently. The team that works on GoodwillFinds consists of both full-time employees and contractors. And Kaness estimates that about 10% of Goodwill’s total revenue comes from online sales — not just from GoodwillFinds.