-- Mark Boyd
CEO
OVERVIEW
Goodwill Industries of Southern New Jersey & Philadelphia is a nonprofit, community-based organization founded in Camden, NJ, in 1948. Now based in Maple Shade, NJ, it employs more than 1,100 local residents, including over 80 individuals who have disabilities.
Using its job training and employment services, the goal of Goodwill is to help individuals with disabilities and disadvantages prepare for, secure, and retain competitive jobs in the workforce.
BACKGROUND
Goodwill converted from their previous POS system to Solutions POS in 2015, and while they were able to improve performance, quality, and reporting, they needed more. Goodwill needed to identify employees who excelled at selecting which donated goods would sell and how to price them for maximum revenue and train others to do the same. In short, Goodwill needed a way to maximize its donations to more effectively fund its mission.
PROJECT
Goodwill approached Solutions ITW with the challenge of how best to identify and reward its star processors. Solutions ITW proposed implementing its Production module to allow processors to barcode individual donated items. The barcodes uniquely identify each item and record information about the item (e.g., SKU, price, rotation color, day produced, processor) resulting in a serialized inventory. The goal was to track inventory produced by each processor and identify which processors produced items that sold quickly and for the maximum value. Goodwill planned to use this data to incentivize and reward their employees.
SOLUTION
Solutions Production allows Goodwills to serialize donated goods inventory through the use of barcodes. The barcodes allow management to track a variety of metrics and individually track donated goods through the sales process. Managers can view reports detailing exactly which items placed on the floor sold, how long it took to sell, and the exact price received. All this data is tied to a processor. The net result is that managers can easily identify their top processors and those who need more training.
An added bonus is that the barcoding allows for much faster selling of items at the counter and greatly simplifies the training of new team members.
RESULTS
Solutions ITW implemented the Solutions Production system in 2017, and there was an immediate impact at the register. The time to ring customer sales decreased by an average of 75 seconds for sales of 10 items or more. This reduced time resulted in shorter lines, less customers leaving due to long lines, more customers served, and more items sold. Over the first 6 months, there were an additional 28,000 sales transactions and 260,000 items sold compared to the same period in 2016.
Processors were now able to view their progress via new reporting. They were able to see how many potential dollars were placed on the floor, how many of those items sold, how quickly they sold, and for what price they sold. As processors were able to see how their inventory sold or did not sell, they adjusted and improved. Over the course of the first 6 months, Goodwill increased revenue by ~$825k over the same period in 2016. The additional revenue allowed Goodwill to recognize top performers with bonuses.
ROI
The Net Revenue Benefit for this project as of December 31, 2017, is ~$741k (Fig. 2).
Project Expenses include software, hardware, and labor for work done by both Solutions ITW and Goodwill. Annual Fees include support and an annual maintenance subscription. Label Fees include the fees for the barcode labels used to manage inventory and speed up processing. Additional Revenue is the increase in revenue over the same period of time in 2016.
SUMMARY
An analysis of the retail data reveals that over the course of this study, Goodwill increased its average sale by ~$0.50 due to tighter processing and retail controls made possible by Solutions POS. Another significant factor is the incentive program implemented by Goodwill. This spurred competition and a desire in employees to excel by pricing items higher and only pricing items that would sell.
The speed of the software allowed for more customers to be served on a daily basis. These two factors, higher average sales and increased sales volume, account for the increased revenue experienced by Goodwill.
Goodwill accomplished its objectives with Solutions POS & Production, and the solution paid for itself in less than 6 months.
ABOUT US
At Solutions ITW, our mission is to help our clients succeed through the use of technology. In order to achieve this mission, we provide software solutions that help Goodwills manage their entire Donated Goods operation. With our Solutions Donated Goods Management System (DGMS), Goodwills can:
- Track Donations and Donors
- Process/Price Donated Goods
- Manage Donated Goods Inventory
- Manage New Goods Inventory
- Sell Goods
- Manage Pulls & Salvage
- Identify & Track Loss/Fraud
- Access Enterprise Reporting
All of this functionality and the added bonus that the system has been designed by Goodwill for Goodwill.