Goodwill goes online: The 120-year-old nonprofit launches new resale website, including luxury barga
- GoodwillFinds, a new secondhand online marketplace, launched on Tuesday.
- The website features thousands of curated Goodwill items ranging across brands and price points.
- The move comes as online thrifting continues to explode in popularity.
Thrifting enthusiasts, rejoice: Goodwill just went online.
The new marketplace, which officially debuted Tuesday as part of the non-profit organization's newly incorporated "recommerce venture" GoodwillFinds, features thousands of curated apparel, electronic, jewelry, and home items.
Like its stores, the site includes an array of brands and prices, as well as discounted designer products. Items currently on GoodwillFinds include a $3,300 10-karat gold diamond ring, $600 Gucci handbag, and $16 Lululemon shorts.
An estimated 100,000 items are for sale on the site currently; the goal is to reach 1 million items within a few years, the Associated Press reported. Users can search by category or brand, including top names like Nike, Cole Haan, J. Crew, and Kate Spade.
According to GoodwillFinds, net proceeds will support social programs and community-based groups that partner locally with Goodwill in the region where items were sourced.
"Our new social enterprise makes it easier for the conscious consumer to shop sustainably online while heightening the thrifting experience they've come to love at Goodwill," GoodwillFinds CEO Matthew Kaness — formerly of Walmart, ModCloth, and Urban Outfitters — said in a statement.
The move comes as thrifting continues to explode in popularity. According to market research firm IBISWorld, the thrift store industry is valued at an estimated $10.8 billion this year, and secondhand resale company ThredUp anticipates the secondhand apparel category will grow by 127% by 2026.
GoodwillFinds will mark the second major effort to bring Goodwill into e-commerce, following the launch of ShopGoodwill.com in 1999. The website, started by Goodwill of Orange County, operates similarly to eBay, using online auctions.
GoodwillFinds, however, will function as the non-profit's first centralized online business, according to NPR. In the past, individual stores would sell items online independently using marketplaces like eBay or Amazon.
The launch of the new site also comes as Goodwill continues to make headlines for attracting valuable rarities and even unexpected historical relics, including a bust sold in May at a Texas store for $34.99, which was later identified as a 2,000-year-old Roman bust.
The company has leaned into new formats for selling its wares in recent years, including opening since-closed upscale boutiques in New York City called Curated in 2018, which sold higher-end and luxury items.
"We designed Curated as a distinct shopping experience to introduce shoppers concerned with the waste and pollution that fast fashion causes, to a stylish, affordable alternative," Katy Gaul-Stigge, CEO of Goodwill NYNJ, said in a press statement at the time.
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