Goodwill’s Hidden Gem: A Growing Online Business That's Sold $1 Billion Of Used Stuff

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The thrift store's online sales jumped 22% to $170 million last year.

The thrift store has now done over $1 billion in online sales since 1999, pulling donations from hundreds of stores like this one outside Los Angeles to list on its website.n early February, an employee at a Goodwill store in Southern California plucked an acoustic guitar from a pile of clothing, housewares and other donations headed for the shelves inside, where a trickle of visitors browsed rows of discounted merchandise.

It’s not exactly Amazon. The site currently attracts about 21 million unique visitors a week despite a virtually nonexistent marketing budget, and sold 4.8 million items nationwide last year. It charges buyers for shipping, which can get expensive depending on the size of the item and the distance. Still, the site is a notable innovation for the century old nonprofit organization, giving it a foothold in the online sale of used stuff,.

Workers are trained to photograph and list items for sale online. Its top three categories: Jewelry, clothing and accessories and electronics.Cathy Hannam was one such store manager who responded to the call. In 2005, she began helping list items donated to the stores she oversaw in Portland, Oregon. One day a year into the new effort, a small watercolor painting was dropped off at a location in the northeastern part of the city, which typically received 250 to 300 donations a day.

A Picasso etching for $1,801. The average sale is $35 and its top-selling categories are jewelry, clothing and accessories, electronics, collectibles and toys.

 

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Better start a investigation on the CEO 🧐🧐🧐

These stores are popping up all over the cities.

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