Goodwill Industries Efficiently Processes eCommerce Orders

Goodwill's Need

Goodwill Industries of San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin Counties collects donated clothes, jewelry, and automobiles and sells them online or in one of its 17 retail outlets. The money generated from the sales of the products it collects is then used to provide education and career services to people with disadvantages that make it hard for them to find jobs otherwise. Every month, the company serves 325 program participants, place 73 people in jobs, process over 100,000 retail transactions, and divert 1.5 million lbs. of material goods from landfill.

Goodwill Industries’ online sales have become popular options for shoppers seeking to easily and quickly find and purchase Goodwill items. But shipping efficiency was a challenge. Goodwill began its online channel in 2006. Initially, the online store—with both auction and fixed-price options—only accounted for five or so orders each day. But as order volumes grew, the eCommerce team couldn’t keep up with fulfillment.

Endicia's Solution

A key benefit of Endicia’s API is that it easily integrated within the Goodwill order fulfillment process. Online orders did not have to be re-entered into the eCommerce management software system (for auction items) or multi-channel sales software (for fixed-price items). Thus, shipping labels are generated quickly and accurately—with the average order requiring only about five seconds for the postage to be prepared. And now that Goodwill's online sales orders have experienced almost 100% growth and as many as 1,000 orders must be processd each day, the dramatic time savings—over 4.5 minutes per order—is a lifesaver, said Cochran.

Another advantage of Endicia is that it eliminates time-consuming trips to the post office. Each day, the U.S. Postal Service^® picks up all Goodwill packages from its distribution facility, all ready to ship and listed under one barcode for easy tracking. In addition, Cochran and his team use a number of Endicia's optional and automated features, such as customer email notification when the order has shipped, Stealth (hidden) Postage, customized labels, and electronic customs forms for international orders. Cochran added that Goodwill's eCommerce operation is on track to exceed its annual revenue goal of $2.5 million, and he credits much of the success to the efficiencies gained from using Endicia.