Goodwill is looking to a pair of veteran fashion heavyweights to move its online resale venture forward.
GoodwillFinds on Wednesday said three stores in South Florida and Ohio are its newest sources for secondhand products sold on the digital resale platform. The three stores it plans to onboard next month will more than double the scale of its marketplace, it said in a statement. To date, GoodwillFinds.com sells products from 360 Goodwill locations.
The company hired two key executives to jump-start growth. It brought on Nicolas Genest, a veteran of Walmart and The RealReal, as chief technology officer to lead product, data analytics and IT services. New chief revenue officer Jim Davis, who held e-commerce, marketing and sales roles at Deckers Brands, Urban Outfitters and Buck Mason, will lead all revenue-generating activities, including performance marketing, demand generation, site merchandising and consumer experience.
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Davis cited the “overwhelmingly positive” reception to GoodwillFinds’ first five months. The platform has sold nearly 200,000 products since October, a fraction of the more than 3 billion pounds of used goods the organization recovers for sale each year.
Adding new Goodwill territories is a part of the company’s growth strategy, Davis told Sourcing Journal. “The stores represent the brick-and-mortar footprint of our participating regional Goodwill members,” he said. “We’re excited to have representation across the entire country, from coast to coast and the Midwest.”
GoodwillFinds gives critical national exposure to local donations. “It’s too early to say how many stores will be part of the GoodwillFinds network, but we are on track to reach our goal of having 1 million items on the site by the end of the year,” Davis said.
The rich data coming out of GoodwillFinds gives the company critical insight into who the customer is, said Davis. “Over half of our purchasers are under 35,” with an even split between Gen Z and Millennial shoppers, he said, while Baby Boomers make up the other half. Women’s apparel, sneakers, toys and collectibles, and video games are among the platform’s most popular categories, according to Davis.
Though it’s one of the newer entrants in the digital thrifting game, GoodwillFinds wants to close the gap with rivals — and quickly.
“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,” GoodwillFinds CEO Matthew A. Kaness said this week.
He believes the new hires’ extensive experience will be instrumental in putting the platform head-to-head with names such as Poshmark, ThredUp and others in the business of secondhand. “Both bring deep expertise that will accelerate build-out and roadmap, which ultimately fuel the essential programs of local Goodwill organizations,” Kaness said.