Introduction: The Goodwill You Don’t Yet Know
When you hear “Goodwill,” you likely picture a warehouse of donated clothing racks, a dressing room curtain that doesn’t fully close, and the quiet satisfaction of unearthing a vintage cashmere sweater for $7.99. That version of Goodwill still exists. But it is no longer the whole story.
In January 2026, Goodwill’s digital arm, ShopGoodwill.com, announced its best year in a quarter-century of operation: $450 million in gross merchandise value, a 22% increase over 2024 . This was not a pandemic anomaly or a temporary inflation-driven spike. It was the result of a deliberate, data-informed, and distinctly nonprofit approach to ecommerce goodwill—one that now accounts for nearly 10% of the organization’s total retail revenue and funds job training for more than 2.1 million people annually .
Yet 2025 was also the year Goodwill made a difficult decision: it shut down GoodwillFinds.com, its fixed-price “buy it now” marketplace launched with great fanfare in 2022 . After investing millions in technology, hiring ecommerce veterans from Urban Outfitters and ModCloth, and listing more than 1 million items, the organization concluded that operating two distinct ecommerce platforms created confusion for shoppers and diluted focus .
This is the story of that transformation—and what it means for the $200+ billion global resale market.
If you are a resale enthusiast, a sustainability professional, a student of nonprofit innovation, or an ecommerce strategist, this guide will provide something rare: a comprehensive, data-backed examination of how a 120-year-old charity is quietly becoming one of the most interesting ecommerce operators in the world. We will cover the business models, the technology investments, the circular economy partnerships, and the hard lessons learned along the way.
This is ecommerce goodwill. Not as an accounting abstraction. Not as a feel-good press release. As an operating reality.
Section 1: What Is Ecommerce Goodwill? Defining the Term’s Two Meanings
H2: The Dual Definition Challenge
Before analyzing strategy, we must address a critical ambiguity. The phrase “ecommerce goodwill” carries two entirely distinct meanings depending on context. Failure to distinguish them has led to significant confusion among readers, researchers, and even some industry analysts.
H3: Definition One – Goodwill Industries’ Ecommerce Operations
This is the primary subject of our guide. Ecommerce goodwill refers to the digital retail activities of Goodwill Industries International Inc. , the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in Boston in 1902 by Reverend Edgar J. Helms .
Goodwill’s ecommerce presence consists of:
- ShopGoodwill.com: An auction-based marketplace launched in 1999, operated by more than 135 independent local Goodwill organizations. It generated $450 million in GMV in 2025 and has surpassed $3 billion in cumulative sales .
- Individual Goodwill organizations selling on third-party platforms: Many local Goodwills maintain seller accounts on eBay, Amazon, and other marketplaces, though centralized strategy now favors ShopGoodwill.com .
- GoodwillFinds.com (2022–2025): A fixed-price, “buy it now” marketplace designed to complement ShopGoodwill’s auction model. It was shut down in 2025 due to market saturation and operational complexity .
This definition is the focus of our guide. It encompasses strategy, technology, competition, and mission alignment.
H3: Definition Two – Goodwill as an Intangible Asset
Separately, in corporate finance and accounting, “goodwill” is an intangible asset that arises when one company acquires another for a price exceeding the fair value of its net identifiable assets .
When this accounting concept appears in an ecommerce context—for example, on a balance sheet line item labeled “Goodwill and other intangible assets—e-commerce customer relationships”—it refers to the premium paid for an acquired online business, not the nonprofit’s operations .
A March 2025 securities filing, for instance, discloses $8.8 million in net carrying value for “customer relationships – e-commerce” with a useful life of three years . This is an accounting entry for a for-profit company’s acquisition. It has no connection to Goodwill Industries.
Why this matters: Search queries for “ecommerce goodwill” frequently attract users seeking information about the nonprofit’s digital strategy. Those users instead encounter financial disclosures about amortization and impairment. This guide exists to close that gap.
Section 2: The State of Goodwill’s Ecommerce Empire – 2026 Update
H2: Record Revenue, Strategic Focus
In January 2026, Modern Retail reported that ShopGoodwill.com logged its best year ever, generating approximately $450 million in gross merchandise value—a 22% increase over 2024 . This is not merely a recovery from pandemic-era disruption; it is sustained, structural growth.
Key Performance Indicators (2025):
| Metric | Value | Change (YoY) |
|---|---|---|
| Gross Merchandise Value | $450 million | +22% |
| Cumulative Sales (All-Time) | $3 billion | +$2 billion since 2021 |
| Participating Organizations | 135+ | Stable |
| Holiday Period Growth (Cyber Monday–Dec) | ~50% | Significant acceleration |
| Share of Goodwill’s Total Retail Revenue | <10% | Room for expansion |
George Burt, chief operating officer of ShopGoodwill.com, characterized 2025 as a breakout year: “That’s pretty remarkable for a nonprofit in this space to achieve” .
The holiday season was particularly telling. While fourth-quarter strength is expected in retail, nearly 50% year-over-year growth during this period signals a fundamental shift in consumer comfort with gifting secondhand items—a trend corroborated by industry-wide data .
H2: The GoodwillFinds Decision – A Case Study in Strategic Discipline
Not all experiments succeed. In 2025, Goodwill made the difficult decision to shut down GoodwillFinds.com, its fixed-price ecommerce venture launched in 2022 .
H3: What Was GoodwillFinds?
GoodwillFinds was conceived as a centralized, “buy it now” online store featuring approximately 100,000 donated items at launch, with ambitions to reach 1 million listings . It was led by Matthew Kaness, a veteran ecommerce executive whose career included leadership roles at ModCloth and Urban Outfitters. Kaness was personally motivated by his brother’s disability and employment journey through Goodwill .
The venture raised significant internal and external expectations. By March 2025, GoodwillFinds had delivered over $65 million in gross merchandise value for local Goodwill organizations, served half a million shoppers, and expanded from 4 participating regions in 2022 to 18 in 2024 . It deployed an AI chatbot called “Gem” that handled over 70% of inbound customer contacts .
Yet the challenges proved insurmountable.
H3: Why GoodwillFinds Failed
1. Market Saturation and Entry Costs
GoodwillFinds entered “the midst of a booming industry that is extremely competitive, that is very expensive to enter,” Burt explained. “Just because it’s nonprofit or it’s got the Goodwill name tied to it, we’re not immune to the same challenges of a startup out there” .
2. Funding Constraints
Unlike for-profit competitors, GoodwillFinds had “no equity to sell” . It relied exclusively on funding from local Goodwill organizations. Kaness acknowledged: “We are severely funding constrained… Our demand is outstripping the supply” .
3. Shopper Confusion
Operating two distinct ecommerce platforms—one auction-based, one fixed-price—created confusion. Burt stated plainly: “We did not [see cannibalization]. Our sales continued to grow. But I think, more than anything else, it just caused confusion” .
4. The eBay Factor
Research analyst Dylan Carden of William Blair observed that competing with eBay in auction-adjacent resale is exceptionally difficult: “Ebay is so established here. You’re kind of going off a gorilla there. They have a better search feature… It’s going to be hard to make waves” .
H3: The Strategic Takeaway
GoodwillFinds was not a failure of execution. It was a successful experiment that yielded a clear strategic conclusion: Goodwill’s ecommerce future lies in doubling down on ShopGoodwill.com, not fragmenting efforts across multiple properties.
The decision to sunset GoodwillFinds required admitting that a beloved brand, a capable executive team, and genuine demand could not overcome structural headwinds. That is not weakness. It is strategic maturity.
Section 3: How ShopGoodwill.com Works – The Operating Model
H2: A Federated Marketplace With a Mission
To understand ecommerce goodwill, one must first understand Goodwill’s organizational structure.
Goodwill is not a monolithic corporation. It is a federation of 153 autonomous local organizations across the United States and Canada, each operating its own territory, stores, and workforce programs . ShopGoodwill.com serves as a shared digital marketplace where more than 135 of these organizations list donated items for national and international buyers .
H3: The Economics of a Nonprofit Marketplace
When an item sells on ShopGoodwill.com:
- 90% of the final sale price (including shipping) returns to the local Goodwill organization that received the donation and listed the item .
- ShopGoodwill.com retains a small percentage to cover platform operations, technology development, marketing, and customer support .
This is fundamentally different from for-profit resale platforms. ThredUp and The RealReal take possession of inventory, incurring substantial costs for processing, photography, and warehousing . Goodwill’s model distributes those costs across hundreds of independent organizations that already operate physical stores.
As Sucharita Kodali, principal analyst at Forrester, observed: “If they’re able to source inventory from the Goodwill stores, and the Goodwill stores ship it, it’s way cheaper than everything that ThredUp and The RealReal do” .
H3: The App and User Experience
ShopGoodwill.com is accessible via web and a dedicated mobile app (4.5-star rating on Google Play) . Key features include:
- Auction bidding with countdown timers and automatic bid increments
- “Buy It Now” fixed-price options on select items
- “1 Cent Shipping” promotions
- Advanced search with filters for category, size, price, seller, and shipping options
- Saved searches and personalized recommendations
- Favorites lists for tracking items across bidding sessions
- Customer service ticketing integrated into the app
The platform processes payments via PayPal and Stripe, with PayPal Credit available .
H2: Technology Investments – AI and Beyond
In 2025, ShopGoodwill.com rolled out an AI-powered listing tool developed with Microsoft . This tool assists local Goodwill staff in photographing, describing, and categorizing donated items for online sale.
Impact: Approximately 130,000–140,000 items are now listed per month using this AI tool .
This is not speculative technology. It is operational infrastructure addressing a specific bottleneck: the labor cost and expertise required to move donated goods from store receiving docks to digital storefronts.
Burt indicated that further investment in listing efficiency tools and a broader website refresh (design, navigation, search) is planned for 2026 . The goal is explicit: “We want to continue to stay relevant” .
Section 4: The Competitive Landscape – Rising Tides and Gorillas
H2: Goodwill’s Position in the Resale Ecosystem
Goodwill is the largest nonprofit player in resale by a significant margin . Yet it competes directly with well-capitalized for-profit entities that operate under different economic rules.
Selected Competitor Performance (2025):
| Company | Metric | Performance |
|---|---|---|
| ThredUp | Quarterly Revenue | $82.2 million (+34% YoY) |
| Depop (Etsy) | Gross Merchandise Sales | $292.1 million (+39.4% YoY) |
| eBay | Quarterly Profit | $632 million |
Steve Preston, CEO of Goodwill Industries International, acknowledged the intensity of competition: “We have to be as competitive or more competitive than people who are getting a significant amount of capital from the marketplace” .
Crucially, Goodwill monitors competitor performance with granularity: “I can tell you the market share of every one of our competitors in every one of our districts. We know how every one of our competitors is trending” .
H2: Why Competition Is Not a Zero-Sum Game
Despite the intensity, Goodwill’s leadership does not view competitors solely as threats.
Preston observed that new entrants have “broadened the market in terms of who participates and how they participate and different channels, different customers, different donors. That has really made the resale space bigger and richer” .
Burt echoed this sentiment: “It’s also a pie that’s gotten larger. There’s a lot of effort in the industry around just continuing to educate and create awareness of secondhand, so it’s a tide that lifts all ships” .
This perspective is grounded in data. The global secondhand apparel market is projected to reach $218 billion by 2026, growing 16 times faster than broader retail clothing . Within that expanding pie, multiple players can thrive.
Section 5: Beyond Resale – Goodwill’s Circular Economy Ambitions
H2: The 4 Billion Pound Question
Ecommerce goodwill is not solely about selling vintage Levi’s online. It is increasingly about what happens to items that do not sell.
Steve Preston articulated Goodwill’s hierarchy of value: “The most sustainable thing you can do is lengthen the useful life of an item. So if something gets donated, the best thing is that somebody else buys it in its current state” .
Yet not every donation is resaleable. Garments may be stained, torn, or simply unsold after weeks on racks.
Goodwill’s diversion performance (2024):
- 45% of donated goods resold
- 30% recycled
- 75% total diversion rate (national average)
- 85% diversion rate achieved by some local organizations with advanced partnerships
Nationally, Goodwill diverts nearly 6 billion pounds of material from landfills annually .
H2: Strategic Initiatives in Circularity
H3: Traceability Study (Walmart Foundation)
In August 2024, Goodwill launched a $2 million traceability study, funded by the Walmart Foundation, to “inform reuse and recycling strategies and help shape industry standards for traceability and product lifecycle stewardship” .
This is not academic abstraction. As Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation advances, brands will be legally required to report on the full lifecycle of their products. Goodwill is positioning itself as the data-rich conduit capable of providing that transparency .
H3: Reju Partnership
In October 2024, Goodwill partnered with Reju, a UK-based company developing textile-to-textile recycling technology at industrial scale. Reju is opening “regeneration stations” in the UK and US to process post-consumer textiles into new fibers .
H3: De-Manufacturing and Component Extraction
For items that cannot be resold and cannot be recycled fiber-to-fiber, Goodwill has developed de-manufacturing processes that extract components—zippers, buttons, hardware—for separate recycling streams .
Bev Kobe, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries, Ontario Great Lakes, explained: “We need recyclers that have this big technology where they can take our clothing and break it down to create new versions of fibers and create a new product for a market” .
H2: The Retailer Partnership Opportunity
Perhaps most significantly, Goodwill is increasingly serving as a white-label reverse logistics partner for retailers.
One Canadian retailer now directs customers to return unwanted merchandise to Goodwill locations. The customer receives a voucher to purchase new products from the retailer. Goodwill processes, resells, or recycles the returned items. The retailer avoids building proprietary reverse logistics infrastructure .
Kobe summarized the opportunity: “There’s a whole industry out there; brands and retailers should know they don’t have to figure this out on their own. We can build these circular ecosystems together” .
Section 6: Pros and Cons of Goodwill’s Ecommerce Model
H2: Strategic Advantages
1. Mission-Driven Brand Equity
Goodwill is “a beloved and almost universally recognized brand” . It does not need to acquire customers at the same cost as ThredUp or Poshmark. Its brand communicates trust, purpose, and community impact.
2. Cost-Advantaged Inventory Acquisition
Unlike for-profit resellers that purchase inventory or process consignment, Goodwill’s inventory is donated. This is not a minor difference; it is foundational to the organization’s economics .
3. Distributed Fulfillment Infrastructure
With more than 3,300 physical stores across North America, Goodwill possesses a last-mile logistics network that would cost billions to replicate .
4. Growing Consumer Tailwinds
Younger consumers increasingly prioritize sustainability and community impact. Goodwill’s research indicates that for many shoppers, community benefit is an even stronger motivator than environmental consciousness .
H2: Strategic Disadvantages
1. Capital Constraints
Goodwill cannot issue equity or take venture capital. Its ecommerce investments must be self-funded or supported by participating local organizations .
2. Federated Decision-Making
Autonomy is a strength of the Goodwill model, but it also means that technology adoption and operational consistency vary significantly across 153 independent organizations .
3. Technology Gap
Kaness acknowledged: “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” .
4. Profitability Pressure
Resale is a low-margin business. GoodwillFinds faced existential questions about when—or whether—it could achieve break-even scale .
Section 7: Seven Critical Mistakes in Ecommerce Goodwill (And How Goodwill Avoided Them)
H2: Mistake 1: Confusing Mission With Business Model
The Trap: Assuming that a noble mission exempts an organization from competitive realities.
Goodwill’s Response: Preston is explicit: “We don’t expect consumers to have a second-class experience when they walk into a Goodwill. We expect them to have a great experience. We expect that we will be able to beat anybody in our space” .
H2: Mistake 2: Operating Two Conflicting Platforms
The Trap: Fragmentation of user attention and engineering resources.
Goodwill’s Response: The shutdown of GoodwillFinds, however difficult, consolidated focus on ShopGoodwill.com. Burt acknowledged the confusion and acted decisively .
H2: Mistake 3: Underinvesting in Technology
The Trap: Treating ecommerce as a secondary channel.
Goodwill’s Response: The Microsoft AI listing partnership and planned 2026 website refresh demonstrate sustained technology commitment .
H2: Mistake 4: Ignoring the Circular Economy Opportunity
The Trap: Defining the business solely as “selling used stuff.”
Goodwill’s Response: The Walmart Foundation traceability study and Reju partnership signal a broader ambition: becoming the infrastructure provider for textile circularity .
H2: Mistake 5: Competing on Price Alone
The Trap: Racing to the bottom against discount resellers.
Goodwill’s Response: ShopGoodwill.com emphasizes unique, collectible, and higher-value items. Its average order value is $120, achieved through curation and categories like jewelry, vintage, and collectibles .
H2: Mistake 6: Failing to Communicate Impact
The Trap: Assuming shoppers understand the connection between purchase and mission.
Goodwill’s Response: The ShopGoodwill app explicitly states: “Around 85 cents of every dollar go back into funding our mission. Shop with purpose, shop for good” .
H2: Mistake 7: Resisting Consolidation
The Trap: Allowing 153 local organizations to pursue independent, duplicative ecommerce strategies.
Goodwill’s Response: While organizations retain autonomy, ShopGoodwill.com provides a shared infrastructure that aligns incentives and pools investment .
Section 8: Expert Tips and Best Practices – For Shoppers, Donors, and Partners
H2: For Shoppers – How to Win on ShopGoodwill.com
1. Master Advanced Search
The platform’s search filters (category, size, seller, shipping options, “1 cent shipping”) are your primary tools for discovery .
2. Save Searches for High-Demand Items
New inventory is listed continuously. Saved searches automate the hunt .
3. Understand Auction Timing
Bidding often accelerates in the final minutes. Set maximum bids early and let the system bid incrementally for you.
4. Check Seller Ratings and Shipping Policies
Each local Goodwill organization manages its own fulfillment. Shipping costs and times vary.
H2: For Donors – Maximizing Impact
1. Quality Matters
Goodwill’s ecommerce channel prioritizes higher-value, sellable items. If your donation is in excellent condition, it may be designated for online sale, generating more revenue for job programs .
2. Consider Electronics and Collectibles
These categories perform strongly online and command higher prices than in-store racks .
3. Do Not Donate Unsellable Trash
Goodwill diverts millions of pounds from landfills, but processing unsalvageable items still consumes resources. If an item is genuinely unusable, seek specialized recyclers.
H2: For Retail Brands – The Partnership Opportunity
1. View Goodwill as Infrastructure, Not Competition
Goodwill has solved reverse logistics at continental scale. Retailers exploring resale programs or EPR compliance should examine Goodwill’s partnership models .
2. Data Is the New Currency
The traceability study positions Goodwill as a source of verified lifecycle data—increasingly valuable as regulatory pressure mounts .
3. Start Local, Think National
The federated model means entry points exist at the local organization level. Successful partnerships can scale across the network.
Section 9: Frequently Asked Questions (SEO-Optimized)
1. What is ecommerce goodwill?
Ecommerce goodwill most commonly refers to Goodwill Industries’ online sales operations, primarily through ShopGoodwill.com. It can also refer to an accounting intangible asset on corporate balance sheets, but this is a separate concept unrelated to the nonprofit .
2. Does Goodwill sell items online?
Yes. Goodwill sells donated items through ShopGoodwill.com, an auction-based marketplace operating since 1999. In 2025, the platform generated $450 million in sales .
3. Is GoodwillFinds.com still operating?
No. GoodwillFinds.com, the fixed-price marketplace launched in 2022, was shut down in 2025 to focus investment and reduce shopper confusion .
4. How does ShopGoodwill.com differ from eBay or ThredUp?
ShopGoodwill.com is operated by a nonprofit, and 90% of proceeds return to local Goodwill organizations to fund job training programs. Inventory is donated, not purchased or consigned .
5. What is Goodwill’s online return policy?
Return policies vary because each local Goodwill organization fulfills its own orders. ShopGoodwill.com generally accepts returns for damaged or incorrect items, but buyers should review individual seller policies .
6. How much of ShopGoodwill’s revenue goes to charity?
Approximately 85 cents of every dollar from ShopGoodwill sales funds Goodwill’s mission of job training, placement, and community support services .
7. Why did Goodwill shut down GoodwillFinds?
GoodwillFinds faced intense competition, funding constraints, and created shopper confusion alongside ShopGoodwill.com. Leadership determined that consolidating ecommerce efforts was the strategic priority .
8. Is Goodwill profitable from ecommerce?
As a nonprofit, Goodwill measures success in mission impact, not profit. Ecommerce revenue funds workforce programs. In 2024, 2.1 million people received assistance through Goodwill services .
9. Does Goodwill use AI for its online store?
Yes. ShopGoodwill.com deployed an AI-powered listing tool developed with Microsoft that now processes 130,000–140,000 items per month .
10. What is Goodwill doing about textile waste?
Goodwill diverts nearly 6 billion pounds of material from landfills annually through resale, recycling, and partnerships with textile innovators like Reju. It is also conducting a $2 million traceability study to advance industry circularity standards .
Section 10: The Future Outlook – Ecommerce Goodwill in 2027 and Beyond
H2: Three Certainties
1. ShopGoodwill.com Will Receive Sustained Investment
The platform’s 22% growth in 2025, combined with the retirement of GoodwillFinds, clarifies the strategic path. Burt’s commitment to a “broader refresh” of design, navigation, and search is not optional—it is essential .
2. Circular Economy Partnerships Will Scale
The Reju collaboration and Walmart-funded traceability study are pilot programs. If successful, they will expand to additional markets and additional material streams. Goodwill is not merely participating in the circular economy conversation; it is building the infrastructure that will make circularity measurable and accountable .
3. The Definition of “Resale” Will Blur
As retailers offload returns to Goodwill, as textile-to-textile recycling becomes commercially viable, and as EPR legislation mandates lifecycle reporting, the boundary between “thrift store” and “environmental services provider” will dissolve.
H2: One Uncertainty
Can Goodwill sustain its competitive position without external capital?
For-profit resale platforms are valued in the billions. They can acquire competitors, hire top engineering talent, and absorb years of operating losses in pursuit of market share.
Goodwill cannot. Its advantages—brand equity, donated inventory, distributed infrastructure—are substantial, but they are not infinite. The organization’s ability to innovate within its funding constraints will determine whether ecommerce goodwill remains a growth story or reaches a plateau.
H2: Final Word
In 1902, Reverend Edgar J. Helms collected discarded household goods from Boston’s wealthy neighborhoods and trained poor immigrants to repair and resell them. That was the original circular economy: waste reduction, skills training, and community support, bundled into a single operational model.
Ecommerce goodwill in 2026 is the same equation, digitized.
The tools have changed. The constraints have shifted. The mission has not.
When you bid on a vintage watch from a ShopGoodwill seller in rural Ohio, 90% of your payment funds job training in that community. When Goodwill diverts 6 billion pounds of textiles from landfills, it is not performing a separate “sustainability initiative”—it is operating the infrastructure that a linear economy failed to build.
This is not charity. It is not corporate social responsibility. It is competitive, data-informed, mission-aligned ecommerce at a scale few organizations—nonprofit or for-profit—have achieved.
The next time you hear “ecommerce goodwill,” you will know precisely what it means.
And you will understand why it matters.
Sources:
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- ABC27/Associated Press. (2022). Goodwill launches online store for thrifters.
- Modern Retail. (2025). How Goodwill is trying to stay ahead of for-profit resale while becoming a bigger player in recycling.
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Filing. (2025). Goodwill and intangible assets disclosure.
- Modern Retail. (2025). GoodwillFinds is trying to keep up with ‘rocket ship’ demand amid growing pains and funding constraints.
- ShopGoodwill.com. (2025). Online Marketplace for Goodwill Thrift Stores.
- Retail TouchPoints. (2025). Goodwill Industries: The Secret ‘Conduit’ for Textile Innovation and Circular Commerce.
- Jiemian.com. (2019). 一文看懂商誉的前世今生.
- Google Play. (2026). ShopGoodwill – Apps on Google Play.
- LinkedIn/Fast Company. (2022). Goodwill is launching an e-commerce platform for online thrifting.