Goodwill’s New Resale Platform Is Way More High-Tech Than You Might Think

After years in corporate retail and board leadership, Matt Kaness (MBA ’02) found himself contemplating his next career move with a focus on social impact and supporting causes he deeply cared about. When the opportunity arose to lead GoodwillFinds eCommerce, a new social enterprise building an online marketplace for Goodwill organizations nationwide, he leapt at the chance.

“The mission of Goodwill is to enhance people’s lives through the power of work, and this really spoke to me personally,” says Kaness, a former executive at Walmart eCommerce and Urban Outfitters Inc., and former CEO of ModCloth.

Despite facing a trifecta of new challenges, Kaness was undaunted: “I’d never worked in a nonprofit, I’d never worked in resale, I’d never run a marketplace,” he says. “But I’ve always trusted my gut and learned at Darden how to lead in dynamic and ambiguous situations.”

Building a Digital Bridge for a Century-Old Mission

Since its founding in 1902, Goodwill has been a leader in what is today called the circular economy, selling secondhand clothing and bric-a-brac to millions of customers. Despite being the ultimate thrifting brand, Goodwill has faced stiff competition from resale marketplaces such as The RealReal, Depop, Poshmark, ThredUp and StockX.

Now it competes directly with them all through a new Direct-to-Consumer digital platform. Launched in October 2022, GoodwillFinds is a significant evolution for the nonprofit network, entering a market that was worth $43 billion in 2023 and is estimated to reach $50 billion in 2024.

Unlike Goodwill’s licensed existing auction-style platform, shopgoodwill.com, which has operated for 25 years and primarily serves resellers and collectors, GoodwillFinds offers a modern, fixed-price marketplace that integrates donations from participating Goodwills across the country into one cohesive shopping experience, allowing consumers across the US to thrift shop Goodwills from across the country through the convenience of their mobile device.

And it’s clearly tapping into shoppers’ preferences: According to statistics compiled by Capital One, 93% of Americans shop online for secondhand items.

A Mission-Driven Marketplace

Matt Kaness is the CEO of GoodwillFinds. He was formerly an executive at Walmart eCommerce and Urban Outfitters Inc., and formerly CEO of ModCloth.

What sets GoodwillFinds apart in the competitive resale market is its nonprofit status and commitment to local impact. “We’re trying to create a new model for circularity in retail,” says Kaness. “When someone donates an item to their local Goodwill, that item is listed online in our marketplace, and the proceeds from that sale go directly back into the community where the item was donated.”

This approach differs from its for-profit competitors, where proceeds go to shareholders. While GoodwillFinds takes fees to cover expenses, its nonprofit structure ensures that net proceeds benefit local communities directly.

More than 130,000 people work across the broader Goodwill network, primarily focused on offering programs for navigating a career and learning new skills. “Goodwills across the country provide second chances to underrepresented populations, such as those that are disabled, previously incarcerated, previously homeless, those recovering from addiction, and those who grew up in poverty,” says Kaness.

As someone who has a sibling that lives with a disability, this mission spoke to him personally.

Early Success

The results so far are promising. In just two years, GoodwillFinds has expanded from four participating Goodwill organizations to 16, with plans to reach 40 by the end of 2025. (Goodwill is made up of 154 independent organizations that have their own local governance and management and control over the items that are donated to stores in their regions.)

The platform has already built a customer base of over a quarter of a million unique shoppers and has shipped more than a million items, including a rare, unopened pack of Pokémon cards that went for $24,000.

The Resale Revolution

The timing for GoodwillFinds couldn’t be better: the U.S. secondhand market was worth $43 billion in 2023, according to a recent report from ThredUp. Last year, apparel resale grew seven times the rate of the broader retail industry.

The rise of sustainable shopping has created new opportunities for the secondhand market. “The younger generation is definitely much more conscious about who they do business with and the brands they support,” says Kaness. “There is a very high awareness amongst young adults about how bad the production of new items, particularly garments made overseas, is for the environment. The rapid growth of resale is a consumer-driven revolution.”

Recent regulatory changes are also pushing the industry toward sustainability. In September, California passed a bill requiring producers and retailers to take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, including repair, recycling and the reuse of garments and fibers.

“California is making a statement that the manufacturers have to contend with the cost that is put on society as many textiles are thrown away and wind up in landfills,” says Kaness.

He notes that three key trends are driving the growth in secondhand shopping.

First, inflation has pushed shoppers toward value channels. “Secondhand is a great place to find deals,” says Kaness.

Indeed, thrift store shoppers save an average of $1,760 per year by purchasing secondhand, according to Capital One.

Second, social media has created demand for unique, personal style on a budget. “There’s this need to be constantly refreshing your wardrobe and wearing unique things that present your personal aesthetic, style and personality, so you don’t look like everybody else,” says Kaness. “Vintage and thrift are great ways to put together unique items on a budget.”

Third, improved technology has made it possible to sort and sell one-off items profitably at scale. “The automation and AI tools we now have access to have transformed what’s possible in resale,” says Kaness. “We can now efficiently process and price individual items in ways that weren’t feasible ten years ago.”

Powering Growth Through Artificial Intelligence

This mission-driven approach is powered by cutting-edge technology. Advances in AI and computer vision — which allows computers to analyze and understand visual data, such as images — are helping resale platforms redirect billions of dollars’ worth of secondhand goods back into the marketplace.

Goodwill processes 6 billion pounds of donations a year, says Kaness. Historically, staff sorted through donated goods by hand — a laborious process of deciding what to resell, recycle, upcycle or dispose of.

“It’s only been recently that a company can resell one-off items online profitably at scale,” says Kaness. This technological capability is crucial for secondhand retail, where each item is unique and requires individual processing.

AI helps determine accurate pricing by considering multiple factors: “You not only have to identify the make, the model or style, the color, size, the original price, but also the current market price based on where similar items are currently selling in resale marketplaces,” Kaness says.

The condition of each item must also be evaluated to determine its resale value. “There are a lot of variables, and it’s really hard for a human to be able to compute that on their own and meet the labor productivity goals,” says Kaness. “Applying automation to this problem allows us and others across the industry to take a picture of an item for resale and to pretty quickly, not just come back with a recommended price and a title, name of the garment, description, and key attributes for search, but then also, like an airline, dynamically price that item as it ages.”

Leadership Lessons from Darden to Goodwill

Kaness credits his Darden education for preparing him to lead this innovative venture. “This feels like the culmination of everything I’ve studied, learned, and experienced over my career, since my time on Grounds,” he says.

Darden’s focus on ethics and responsible leadership aligns well with his current role. “I think about Ed Freeman’s class and stakeholder theory versus shareholder theory,” Kaness says. “I’m learning firsthand, working in a nonprofit, but competing with for-profits, the benefits and the challenges of really thinking holistically and much longer term than what I’m used to from all my previous executive roles and for-profit businesses.”

As GoodwillFinds continues to expand, Kaness remains focused on both the mission and the people behind it. “What I’ve learned in my career as I’ve gotten older is that everything goes back to the quality of people that you work with,” he reflects. “The people I’m partnering with who run these local Goodwills are some of the best humans that I’ve ever met. These are people who are true missionaries, who have given themselves to the mission of Goodwill, many of whom have been there for 30-40 years.”

For Darden students contemplating their career paths, Kaness offers this wisdom: “Always keep in mind that the quality of the people you work with will dictate so much of the outcome.”