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Goodwill of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin Counties
- In terms of finding meaningful solutions to poverty, perhaps no other nonprofit is as well known and successful as Goodwill Industries. Self-described as a Value Recovery Enterprise, Goodwill San Francisco not only recognizes the value in people’s unwanted goods and society’s unwanted people, but redirects that value back into local communities.
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A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
- Goodwill’s philosophy and business model has been a continued success since opening its doors in 1902. And now, in addition to its traditional brick and mortar stores, the Goodwill model has grown to include internet outlets. Goodwill San Francisco
joined eBay Giving Works in 2003 as a means to diversify its available points of sale. This has allowed them to address the needs of those living in poverty in the Bay Area while serving the wants of an increasingly web-oriented society. - eCommerce Manager Johnny Cochran stayed true to his company’s guiding principle of a hand up, not a hand out when developing their online business. “Many nonprofits know they can receive donations from Community Sellers through eBay Giving Works, and that’s great. For us, we wanted to take revenue generation into our own hands. Becoming a Direct Seller and opening our own eBay store allowed us to more fully control our financial future. I look at Direct Selling as being proactive rather than reactive.”
- Goodwill Industries of San Francisco has taken control a step further by refining their inventory so each item sold has the highest margin possible. This includes specializing in selling those items that will receive higher prices online, such as designer clothes, and monitoring marketing trends to make sure they remain competitive with other sellers.
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Goodwill Doing Good Business
- Mr. Cochran stresses the importance of focusing on controlling costs from the onset of opening an eBay store. One way to do this is by selling commodity items such as books, movies, CDs or anything with a barcode that is easily scanned, at Buy It Now (or fixed) prices. This strategy allows them to sell a high volume of lower-value items, while minimizing the staff hours required fulfilling each order. In fact for commodity items, Mr. Cochran’s team uses a sophisticated software system, Monsoon, to manage the entire sales cycle from donation to delivery.
- By monitoring market trends in real time, Monsoon helps them identify a distinct receiving threshold and pricing strategy for each product category based on current market value, desirability and availability. As Mr. Cochran explains it, “Supply and demand dictate the online price of items, so if supply is low and demand is high, it’s entirely possible to get more than 100% of the original price.” The software will also raise or lower the price of a product based on actual marketplace activity, which allows Goodwill San Francisco to remain competitive with other sellers.
- This allows employees to focus their time on facilitating sales of high-value items through eBay auctions, thereby maximizing profit per time sold. A trained employee searches donations for unique, sought-after items such as jewelry, handbags and art, which are then sold either online or in Goodwill San Francisco’s boutique stores in San Francisco and Menlo Park. This streamlined approach has allowed Mr. Cochran to hire six staff to assist with their eBay store and has generated over $1 million for Goodwill Industries to date.
Goodwill and the Greater Good
- One of the biggest benefits to becoming a nonprofit Direct Seller on eBay versus other online marketplaces is that eBay Giving Works helps Goodwill San Francisco live up to its iconic name. The ribbon symbol placed on charity listings automatically sets Goodwill San Francisco’s items apart. Mr. Cochran firmly believes the ribbon can be a deciding factor in making a sale on eBay because it makes customers feel better about their purchases; they know they’re going to benefit a good cause. And with 99.9% positive feedback, Goodwill San Francisco’s approach to online selling just makes good sense.
- Visit Goodwill San Francisco's About My Nonprofit page and eBay Store .