EXCLUSIVE Q&A: Goodwill Central Texas integrates AI with pricing
The central Texas regional affiliate of Goodwill Industries is streamlining product pricing, tagging and channel assignment with proprietary AI technology.
Chain Store Age recently spoke with Nick Adams, VP of retail at Goodwill Central Texas, about how his organization is piloting an in-house-developed, AI-driven dynamic pricing and channel optimization solution called ReNu in six locations.
Goodwill operates on a federated model, meaning it's an affiliation of 154 individual, independent nonprofits at the state and local levels.
Why did Goodwill Central Texas develop its own pricing system?
Most of Goodwill’s work is done in the back room, such as sorting, categorizing, sizing and pricing products. Some regional Goodwill affiliates have production terminals in the back room to digitize that process and enables employees to print tags with all the information they want on it and a barcode so it rings up.
Goodwill Central Texas replaced the third-party tag production solution we were using with an in-house-developed application called ReNu. In addition to being able to print barcoded labels with the product category like our previous solution, it could print the price, size, and an item description.
How does the integrated artificial intelligence capability work?
We wanted to use AI to help us with channel optimization, or determining via what channel products should be sold. This includes immediately placing an item on the sales floor, listing it online for sale, saving it for a seasonal holiday like Halloween or Christmas, or if there is a low-value item that we should recycle or send to our outlet store.
With thousands of items and thousands of employees in our 40-plus stores, this process is very time-intensive and it slows down our efficiency and the amount of product we're able to get onto the floor, especially with new employees.
Since January 2025, we have had a setup where cameras can see the table where employees are sorting products, and if they want to, they can utilize AI to help make a decision by pressing an AI assistance button.
The cameras have already captured the images of the item, and we use AI to return a recommendation for what to do with the product to the employee. The AI camera system can also tell an employee the name of an item and a very detailed description of it including size, weight and manufacturer, as well as provide a listing of a similar item.
In addition, the AI solution will tell employees what a product sells for brand new, its value on open reselling marketplaces, and the recommended thrift store value price? An employee can use that information to decide how to sell the product and what to price it. If an item is priced in-store, we can show the customer the used average value for a similar item as well as the Goodwill list price.
[READ MORE: Exclusive Q&A: Regional Goodwill chapter moves beyond resale]
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Pants with price tags in a Goodwill Central Texas store. -
Shirts with price tags in a Goodwill Central Texas store.
What has the rollout strategy been?
Goodwill Central Texas has the ReNu system in seven pilot stores right now and we plan to start hiring employees to use AI-equipped workstations in a new role called ‘AI merchandise pricer.’
They would be the ones deciding when to use AI to assist with item pricing and then how to apply that learning. Right now, we only use ReNu to help price home goods. One we have filled the AI merchandise pricer role and have someone that is an expert in it, that will help us understand how to integrate ReNu in softlines and how to automate pricing for every item, every time.
Are there any metrics from the pilot you can report?
The name of the thrift store game is being fresh and full, so we want to turn all the inventory in our store in 30 days and we want our fixtures full every day, so that customers have a reason to shop as often as they're interested or they want to and be able to find new items that are unique and a great price.
Employees in the pilot stores are more productive, and they are getting better products at a better price on the sales floor. There has been a double-digit lift in sales.
Can you share any future plans for ReNu?
We have been working with Goodwill International and sharing what we're doing and how we're doing it, and are supportive of other Goodwills opting in and using the software,
Right now, the camera is always on. It's always watching, but the employee decides if they want AI assistance. Our next steps will be to get this capability in all of our stores, obtain more employee feedback, and then evaluate how we want to further automate the process.
Maybe items to be priced will go on conveyors everything will have its picture taken by the camera, or maybe every time ReNu knows the product has changed, it will grab the picture and provide the employee that information automatically.
