In 2017, Solutions ITW worked with Goodwill to replace their existing point of sale system with Solutions POS. The resulting system not only manages sales, it now manages donations, production, and corporate-wide reporting.
All this, and the system paid for itself in the first few months!
OVERVIEW
The Goodwill highlighted in this case study was founded in the 1950’s, through the effort of a local advocacy group working to increase job opportunities for people with disabilities.
Over the years, Goodwill’s presence has expanded with new stores and online shopping, but its purpose has remained the same: providing tools that help people overcome barriers to employment and find meaningful work.
BACKGROUND
This Goodwill is a leader in the national Goodwill market and was searching for the means to improve the speed and efficiency of its retail business. At the time, Goodwill was experiencing more foot traffic than its current retail management system was able to accommodate in a timely manner. As a result, potential customers (and sales) were leaving the store due to long lines. In addition, Goodwill wanted to improve the tracking and pricing of donated goods.
PROJECT
Goodwill initially approached Solutions ITW with interest in the Inventory Management module of Solutions POS. Solutions ITW worked with Goodwill to identify their current struggles and desired outcomes. Based on this discovery process, Solutions ITW presented a solution that would not only address Goodwill’s inventory issues, it would allow Goodwill to better manage their entire donated goods operations.
Goodwill selected Solutions ITW as its new donated goods management system and defined two (2) objectives:
- Accurately Track Donated Goods
- Improve Speed of Checkout
SOLUTION
The Inventory Management functionality of the Solutions system allows Goodwill to individually serialize and track each donated good that is received. With this improved traceability, Goodwill is able to accurately capture the number of donations received and enforce correct pricing for each of those items.
The Retail Management Module allows Goodwill sales personnel to process sales quicker and more accurately using the barcodes that are generated at the point of donation processing.
The Reporting Module provides Goodwill management a real-time view of the entire donated goods operation. This allows management to make decisions and change directions quickly, using data that is not stale.
RESULTS
Solutions ITW implemented the Solutions system at one location as a pilot on May 1, 2017, with the remaining locations implemented over a span of 4 months. Since the initial implementation, retail revenue has increased by more than $1.5M over the same period the previous year.
The stores are seeing consistently improved sales numbers, with highest sales days jumping an average of $2k.
In addition to the higher sales numbers, tracking and reporting of the donated goods inventory is now accurate, and management is able to control pricing and discounts. Sales representatives simply need to scan barcodes.
ROI
The Net Revenue Benefit of this venture as of November 30, 2017, is $1.06M.
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 2016. Savings include the reduced ongoing cost of the software versus the previous system.
SUMMARY
An analysis of the retail data reveals that over the course of this study, Goodwill increased its average sale by approximately $1.15 due to tighter processing and retail controls made possible by Solutions POS. The speed of the software also 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, 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 help 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
- Donated Goods Inventory Management
- New Goods Inventory Management
- Sell Goods
- Manage Pulls & Salvage
- Identify & Track Loss/Fraud
- Enterprise Reporting
All of this functionality and the added bonus that the system has been designed by Goodwill for Goodwill.
