Alison Covington: It's over 5 million, almost 6 million items we've been able to distribute to over 850 community organisations. The right goods to the right people at the right time. The way I describe it to people, it's the mateship of Australia. Welcome to Add to Cart, the podcast that Express delivers all you need to know in the fast moving world of E commerce. Every month, Nathan Bush from 12 High and an E commerce industry expert will share the news, research and insights that you need to know to keep you at the top of your game and of course, keep your customers. Adding to Cart.
[Voiceover]: Hello there and welcome to Add to Cart. My name is Nathan Bush, host of Add to Cart and strategist at e commerce consultancy twelve High. Today we chat with Alison Covington, founder and managing director of Good360. Alison and Good360 have a goal, a really ambitious one and one that you may even be able to help with. Their goal is to donate $1 billion of brand new goods to deserving charities by 2025. It's a big one, but they're already making huge impact. So far, They've donated over $125 million worth of goods using 12 million items in Australia. In this episode, hear how retailers such as Big W, Harvey Norman and Lego have partnered with Good360 to make valuable contributions to our communities. And it's never been more important than in 2020, a year filled with bushfires, drought and Covid. Good 360 are right in the thick of it and I think it will surprise and hopefully inspire you as to how much difference we can really make in retail now, thanks to our partners, Shopify plus and Klarna. Let's explore retailers who are making a difference with Alison Covington from Good360. Alison Covington, thank you very much for joining us on Add to Cart.
Alison Covington: Thank you very much for having me.
[Voiceover]: Pleasure.
Nathan Bush: All right, let's get straight into it now. You're the founder and managing director of Good360 here in Australia. Can you give us a little bit of an overview on what who good360 are and what you do?
Alison Covington: So good360 is a matchmaker, so we connect brand new non food goods to charities and school to help Australians in need. And since 2015 we've matched up over $125 million of brand new goods to almost around 2,000 charities and schools. So that's an exciting milestone to be able to do that in five years. And that's 12 million individual items that have helped Australians. So we're really proud that we've had many retailers who have joined us. Brands like Big W, lego, Harvey Norman, LG, Sealy, Quilton, etc. Being able to help us do that. So we' really proud that they've joined this journey with us, but extraordinarily helped so many Australians with these goods which were excess or idle in their inventory and we've been able to match them up.
Nathan Bush: It's fantastic. I love that word. And you've got it all through your website around matchmaking. It's about making sure the goods go to the right place, isn't it?
Alison Covington: Yeah. So we talk about the right goods to the right people at the right time. So many businesses are very generous, but they just didn't know who needed their goods. And you know, we work with over 2000 charities, we want to work with more. There's, you know, 56,000 charities here in Australia, so there's a very large number. But when we start to work with our businesses, when we talk to the corporates who want to make these donations, we say to them, name how many charities you know here in Australia. And you know, take this exercise yourself because most of us get up to maybe 20 and we probably all name the same 20 charities. But you know, been able to Access More than 2,000 really resonates with their employees because it's where they work and live, but also the customers as well. So we're getting them to charities or schools that they wouldn't normally know the names of and their local charities or grassroots charities. So it's broadening that reach, which I think is really important.
Nathan Bush: So when it comes to matchmaking, do you start with the retailers who come to you and say, hey, we've got a problem with excess goods or we've got an opportunity with excess goods or do you have the these communities that come to you and go, hey, we really need help with X or Y.
Alison Covington: It's a two sided marketplace. So we have an online system. Our charities are vetted and registered with us, so they're registered members ready to take the goods and then we have the businesses who have the goods. So it's that tricky two sided e commerce marketplace that we have to have enough goods and we have to have enough members, but we want to make sure that we don't have too many goods and not enough members. So it's that tricky step scaling of our business at the same time because we don't want members who are, you know, feeling that they don't have the goods that they need. But at the same time, we don't want to have product that's sitting idle as well. So we need to keep both growing at the same, same rate.
Nathan Bush: How big of a problem is idle product for retail in Australia?
Alison Covington: It's a very interesting question because most of us know about food waste, so there's so much in the media and education about food waste and, you know, the millions of Australians who need access to food. But we've had a look at the size of not and the area that we play in is around $96 billion worth of product. And we're estimating that 2% of that is surplus. So per annum, that's about $1.92 billion worth of goods would be excess or idle that we could get access to to match to these charities and communities and schools. So it's a very big problem. In the last year, we matched about $50 million worth of those goods. So we have a much bigger ability to scale and assist here in Australia than what we're currently doing. We have a lot of growth.
Nathan Bush: Well, it's huge. And I know that one of your goals is to be able to donate $1 billion worth of brand new goods to charities by 2025, is that right?
Alison Covington: That's correct. So it looks like, you know, compared to the size of the market, I'm an underachiever, I should really set a bigger target, doesn't it?
Nathan Bush: So I think 50 million in a year is pretty good.
Alison Covington: I know, but people thought that that 1 billion target was just so huge and that's why our peer Bertles joined our board and we looked at the size of the market to say, you know, is that billion dollars achievable? And when he looked at that, I felt like such an underachiever when he joined my board and I went, right, okay, we're going to hit this target and we're going to scale beyond there.
Nathan Bush: I worked with Peter for a little while there at Super Retail Group and yeah, he stretches your targets a little bit, doesn't he?
Alison Covington: I know he just looked at me quietly and sort of raised his eyebrow and I went, okay, I can do better.
Nathan Bush: I know that eyebrow raise. I know it. I know exactly what you're talking about.
Alison Covington: Whereas people before thought it was a bit of a reach, whereas now I just feel like I've got lots more to achieve.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, that's fantastic. So can you talk us through a typical retailer and maybe you want to talk to Big W? Because I know you've done a lot of work with Big W around the process for Them in that how this actually works in a more tangible sense. So at what stage do you get the goods? Where do you get them from, how do you transport them in that process?
Alison Covington: Yeah. So Big W is one of our fantastic partners. We're really proud with this partnership. So we started working with them in 2017 to have a look at how we could develop a program from their stores. So we have our online website, which I mentioned, and we can do deliver to door to our charities and schools. But we thought, you know, if we're going to scale, how can we make this more of a national program and pick up like a click and collect from partners stores and then that would make sure that we make that local community connection program for community organisations to go in store. So that was about making a connection for employees and customers and communities to feel very connected to where employees work and live. But also from an environmental and sustainability point of view, we're not moving stock around the country, so we're not bringing it from that store back to our warehouse and then distributing it back nationally around the country. Made no sense at all. So sustainable, sustainability wise, it was much more better from a carbon footprint. But also then those store managers and staff were making a connection with those charities about coming and collecting. They were hearing the stories that the charities were doing in their community with that stock and that was really heartfelt. So for those store teams to go, well, that stock was sitting idle and we were clearing that. But now if we actually donate that to our local community organizations, we hear the good news stories about what they're going to do with people in our community. And that was quite an emotional turning point point for the teams at Big W to go, hey, we're making a really big impact. Since 2017, it's around, it's over 5 million, almost 6 million items we've been able to distribute to over 850 community organizations. So that's a massive program and you know, a coordination to matchmaking service that Good360 does. But it's that community connect which I'm really, really proud of because it's those stories that the team get to personally hear. They shake hands not in Covid environment now, but prior to that they were always, you know, there was hugs, there was tears, there was shaking of hands, there was, you know, talking about how, you know, they could do more in their community and, you know, working on other volunteer opportunities and things like that. So I think that was really important. And then on top of that, we developed other programs with Big W to say you know, is there some stock that maybe never made it to store that could be at still at D.C. or something like that? And we would develop programs around that. And then also Big W developed this, you know, very innovative program. Not sure if you've ever heard about it. It's a free books program that they have in store that you don't need to purchase anything, but that parents can come in store and receive a book for their children. And they realized that people who live near the store could get those books. But if you didn't live near a store, you couldn't access these books. So they then offered up another run of Those books for good360 to distribute to schools and communities that were much more remote. So we then got to have the opportunity to identify rural schools, etc. And deliver those to much more regional and remote schools away from those stores. And that was, you know, a fantastic partnership. And they developed a program this year with the Wiggles. So as you can imagine, those books were like hot potatoes, literally. And, you know, we couldn't get enough of them to be able to get out to. To communities that weren't near a store. And I think that was just really important that Big W, beyond it wasn't access to them, but they developed a program to say, look, we want children who aren't near our stores to still get access to books as well. So it's just letting them know that we can help facilitate and match to Communities products as well for them. Above and beyond what it wasn't excess, it was them doing good in their community.
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Nathan Bush: it's a really interesting reframing of the original perception that I had at least of good360 where you're actually just solving a problem for retailers who have excess stock and just getting into the right place, when it's actually not that. It's about how do you connect into the right communities at the right place. Exactly what you said. The right place at the right time and make a real difference rather than just solving an excess. Excess inventory problem.
Alison Covington: Yeah, and I think that's you know, this year, particularly 2020, has been the most unusual year, you know, in my time that we know, we had the bushfires and now we have COVID 19. You know, we reacted very quickly in January thinking that, you know, this is something that, you know, good360 has to reframe ourselves and be available for disasters and help our businesses work through how to position themselves in disasters. And we thought that what busy looked like and now we've discovered in the last month that was just, you know, the toe in the water of what busy looks like. And that was a pilot to teach us how to do busy. And I think, you know, many retailers are probably the same as they've moved into knowing what online looks like and what busy looks like as well. So we're all very similar, having to readjust ourselves. But, yeah, it's just amazing how we can respond, respond and help businesses help their communities. And it has gone from, you know, what was excess and idle to being very purposeful and intentioned giving to communities. Because I know Australian businesses, brands, retailers are some of the most generous people that I've ever met. Their teams are under so much pressure and the busiest people I've ever come across, but they still find ways to want to do so much building their community as well.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, absolutely. And I think we keep hearing about how much retail is hurting at this time, but exactly what you said. There's still still time for giving, which is part of the amazing community that we're a part of. Have you got any stories that you've seen, either through Covid or through the bushfires earlier in the year, of retailers who have really kind of gone above and beyond to help out, even if when they're struggling.
Alison Covington: Yeah, one of the. I'll talk about Big W again, just because it's a quote that just resonates with me again. And it was the bushfires that, you know, we were very much about the right goods to the right people at the right time. And so we have to say to some of our retailers that your goods are not appropriate right now in the early disaster stage. But we'll call on you when it's the rebuild or respond times and such. But we got a call from down on the south coast in New South Wales for five families that had children with autism and they needed trampolines because they needed to be able to jump, to regulate, to get back to normal. And it wasn't something that we had in stock, but these families needed to do it quite urgently because the children were literally climbing the walls. When they have autism, they need to regulate. So we made a call to Big Dubbing and said, look, it's not something we normally get from you, but do you have access to these trampolines? Can you help us get them to the family? And they said, yep, you know, we'll organize that for you. And we got them to the families and the one father came back with this quote and it was that from his. He had five children, two with autism and they were twins. And he said, one of the little girls said, Big W must be where Santa gets his presents from. And while he's having a rest, they are sending them out to us because the fire took our things away. And I just went, you know, and I sent that on to Big W. And whilst, you know, we've received millions of items from Big W and, you know, fantastic things, it was just the fact that we had the relationship with Big W to go reach in and say, look, can we just have this one item? A family's had their house destroyed. They have nothing, but they've asked for one thing. And, you know, in time we'll, you know, when they have a home, we'll go back in and furnish and do all the other things for them. And I think it's just the fact that, you know, we can reach out to retailers and ask for the right goods to the right people at the right time and, and be able to match that up. That, that family, it meant so much to them and, and, you know, we've had the same thing with Harvey Norman. They've been able to give us furniture and barbecues and mattresses and beds and, you know, Colgate give us toothpaste. And, you know, so it's from the, from the toothpaste all the way to, you know, lg with fridges and washing machines. So it's from the big to the. You know, literally, toothpaste makes a difference in a bushfire. When you can't clean your teeth and you need toothpaste, it's having those relationships that the retailers will absolutely give if they know what's actually needed.
Nathan Bush: Yeah.
Alison Covington: And I think that's what's so special, is that I say that we have the most generous businesses. I think, you know, that nobody knows just how generous and time poor they are, but they respond to our needs.
Nathan Bush: That's. It's such a beautiful story that you share. So thank you for sharing that. What do you think is. Obviously there's lots of charities banging on the doors of businesses and retailers asking for help. You've obviously got to the level where you've got a huge amount of trust with really large retailers. What's been the key to establishing that trust and that two way conversation around what you need versus what they can supply and keeping that conversation open rather than going, oh no, here comes Alison again.
Alison Covington: I'm sure they do say that it
Nathan Bush: sounds like there's a genuine trust in you and your organization that when you come asking that you've done the matchmaking and that everything that is donated goes to a really, really deserving person or organization.
Alison Covington: Yeah, I think it's, we have systems, I'm all about people, systems, processes. So you know, we have contracts with our charities to say that they can't sell the goods, it can't go on ebay, it can't be raffled, it can't be fundraised, must go to a person in need. So we, you know, we have our processes to say that that's what, you know, the intentions are there. And then, you know, we ask our donors also to sign a contract to say this is, you know, what we need you to do to make sure that the goods are in good working order as well, so that, you know, something that you would give to your own family member, etc. So that you, these are the goods that are brand new or you know, in good working order, et cetera and things like that. So they can see that there's a process on both sides of the marketplace to say it's legitimate, it's in good order. And then we say these are the goods that we need. And then we make sure that they get connected and that we go back to them, report what happens so that you know, it gets sold through, it goes, it gets gifted through, it goes to the people who need it. And then we can provide back the statistics of how many charities received it, where they went and the impact. So it is all about the processes, it's just showing the impact. And I think that's very important. It comes back to the trust. As you said that, you know, in the bushfires, you know, lots of money was donated, lots of things were happening, but people wanted to see the impact, tell me exactly what happened. And that's what we could show our statistics. If you go onto our website, you can see exactly how many goods we distributed, you know, in what time period, what we were doing, how we were active in that area and the Same even in COVID 19 in just the last four weeks we've had a 247 increase in the number of items that we've delivered in the same time period last year. So, you know, we're all about statistics, impact, but we deliver on what we say we're going to do.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, that's two things retailers love. Right. Is, is analytics and statistics and also just getting in and doing stuff like. So if you can do both of those, you kind of speak in the same language.
Alison Covington: Yeah. And we are, we are literally the same. We're an E commerce system, we're warehouse logistics. The only difference is that, you know, we're branded as a charity, which we are, and you know, we reinvest our profits back into our growth, but we are doing exactly the same things. You know, we're very small but mighty. We, we love to ask for assistance. You know, we don't have all the abilities that some of the bigger retail companies have, so we're not ashamed to ask for skills and advice of our partners to say, teach us how to do things better. But we are very much running the same businesses but on a very lean budget.
Nathan Bush: And you touched on it before, but I thought it was a really interesting point, is that you supply a lot of the outcomes and the stories of where the donations, donated goods go. It doesn't feel, and you mentioned some of those big retailers that you work with. It doesn't feel like they really beat their chest and tell the story of the difference that they're making in their communities. Is that fair?
Alison Covington: No. And I think it's a very Australian thing. It's the tall Poppy syndrome. And I would love us all to be braver as an industry, the retail industry, to say that, look, you know, it's something we should be really proud of. As I mentioned earlier, you know, we have had 12 million items donated to Good 360 from very, very generous retailers. But it's not something that sits comfortably as Australians, let alone retailers to talk about that and to say how generous we are. It's just not in our nature to do that. But I think we should. And I think, you know, the wave of talking about what we do for food waste is reported. So we report our food waste. And there's no shame in saying that in our annual reports for our sustainability statements, etc. That's, you know, out there in the open, but nowhere in retail would we talk about the fact that we have some excess or idle goods. Why not? It's a part of, you know, the society that we live in. And I would, you know, I've talked to some partners about this and saying, look, there has to be tension in the business between the people who produce the goods, the people who are taking the risk of on either making the goods, importing the goods or designing the goods and the people who are selling the goods. And this has to be the fact that they are not going to sell through. If you sell them through 100%, then the people who ordered that amount of goods didn't take a big enough risk on ordering them or the people who sold them sold out of them. And you know, there has to be more tension on that because if that's always zero, then you should have taken a risk on ordering more or the sales team, you know, didn't do their job and didn't sell enough. So there has to be that tension in the business. But what has to be is the innovation to say by the executive team, it's okay that we have this surplus because what we are doing is we're proud to donate that to community.
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Nathan Bush: It's a fantastic story, especially when you bring it all back to about connecting with community. And I love even the example around Big W and the books to regional areas, regional communities. That's just a fantastic story in itself, even if you don't mention the numbers of it. But just in terms of the impact that it can have to kids lives. To me, if Big W were telling that story, that brings the affiliation with Big W even closer. Right?
Alison Covington: Yeah. And I think it's just allowing media to want to tell that story as well rather than thinking, you know, as a retail group, how do we get media to want to talk positively about retail rather than trying to find negative stories all the time? And I think the way to do that is through the matchmaker rather than the retailer looking for that story. And we have had media be much more positive when we tell the story on behalf of the retailer. So I think, you know, there is that ability for the matchmaker to be able to highlight the matching of the good between the retailer and the charities or the schools. So it doesn't necessarily look like the retailer trying to tell the story all the time. So I think There is some positivity there, but I think it's, it's that paying forward, everybody loves to hear that story that, you know, for each one that I receive, I can give one to somebody else or you know, these amount of items go to, this amount of profit goes to, to this community and things like that. So it is the positioning of, you know, how do we talk about that? Because you know, if we thought about those 12 million item, if we talked about how many sales generated those 12 million items, it's a really good news story.
Nathan Bush: That's fantastic.
Alison Covington: And that's just the positioning and consumers want to know about people's sustainability stories and their community stories. So we just need to get a little bit braver.
Nathan Bush: Yeah, I think it's a fantastic point and I think we should be out there telling the story of the impact that it's making because in retail, and I'm sure you might see this as well, Alison, is that we're very good at following other retailers. Whether it be a technology thing, a marketing thing, product retail is very good at following once they've seen other retailers be successful at something. So if more retailers can tell the story of how they're changing how they use excess goods and the communities that they're engaging with and the differences that they're making, I think we'll have a better chance of getting other retailers come on board.
Alison Covington: Yeah. And I think, you know, Covid is just one of those things that are really going to change how we do a lot in business and in life in general. And I think, you know, we're seeing this, that, you know, there's a lot of people who've been stood down. Small businesses, self employed casuals, you know, don't have their money in their pocket like they did have. But you know, retail online has seen that there's still people who do have the money in their pockets. So it's the opportunity for the people who have got the sales to say, well, what can we do to give a helping hand to the ones that don't? And those customers would I think really resonate to take the opportunity to say, if I still in the position to be able to buy X, I would pay it forward to the person who doesn't because you know, they're my neighbor, my friend, my family and I will support the business and I will do, you know, whether it's the roundup, the buy one, give one, you know, I will really work with those businesses to lift up my neighborhood, my village, my town. And I think you can see See that outpouring of love for everybody trying to do those types of initiatives. So I think the retailers who want to do that will find their sales will be very positive. And it's not, it's not necessarily about the sales, but it's about that brand recognition of community that we're, you know, it's the. I think the way I describe it to people, it's the mateship of Australia. It's about. That's what we're about, is how do we help others and that's what will really resonate.
Nathan Bush: You're matching mates, not dates.
Alison Covington: Yeah. We sometimes describe ourselves a bit like Tinder matching that retailer with that charity. It's the sort of, you know, here you go.
Nathan Bush: Love it. So if, if we've got retailers listening to this. I know we do. What kind of retailers are perfect for to get involved with Good 360? Is it limited to the larger retailers like you referred to earlier, or is it broader than that?
Alison Covington: No, it's everybody. So it's everybody who has goods that are non food. We work with every type of categories, so toys, clothing, furniture, personal care. You know, I describe it that it's, you know, you get out of bed in the morning and you do a lot more than just have breakfast. It's all those goods that you do from, you know, waking to going back to bed. It's for people who just don't have the money in the pockets to be able to do that. We want to take Australians from surviving to thriving. And if you're a brand or retailer who have any of those goods, we'd love to have a conversation with you to. To lift up other Australians to give them the opportunity to be the same.
Nathan Bush: Brilliant. And the best way for them to get started.
Alison Covington: Reach out. You can contact us via our website site or you can just email me directly. It's very simple. Alisonood360.org There you go.
Nathan Bush: It doesn't get simple than that. Alison, it has been so great to have you on add to cart and just thank you for everything that you're doing in the matchmaking services that you're providing. Because, you know, going back years and years, it's like it's always been this underlying problem of what do we do with excess goods? And you hear it from different corners and you've really got a solution and have been working on that solution for a long time now on how to matchmake retailers to reputable and deserving charities and organizations. So it's such a great service and I love Love, love the target of $1 billion in brand new donated goods by 2025. It's so ambitious and so worthy. So congratulations on what you have achieved and best of luck in the coming years. And one more time, I know we said it before, but if people want to contact you to get involved, where can they find you?
Alison Covington: Just straight at our website good360.org au beautiful.
Nathan Bush: Thank you very much.
Alison Covington: Thank you for your time and thank you to all the generous businesses who have collaborated with Good360. We'd be nothing without them.
[Voiceover]: We're talking some big impact here, right? And just like Yaz from the world's biggest garage sale who we had on Add to Cart a few episodes ago, I loved hearing about the matchmaking service. That can mean retailers and businesses can make a massive difference with very little additional effort. Just partnering up with some awesome organizations. I think it's worth focusing on one bit that Alison referred to our hesitance as Australian Businesses to talk about the good we are doing for Australians. Whether this be via Good360 or whether it's on a large or small scale. I agree with Alison that we need to be more public with our clients. Contributions won't come easily, but there's four good reasons why. Firstly, it strengthens the connection with our customers and helps build brand affiliation beyond stuff that they buy from us. Secondly, it gives our teams a higher purpose and pride for who they're working for. Thirdly, it lends profile to the charities and the causes we support and this is crucial. And lastly, we need to show other retailers that we prioritize giving and the well being of our communities. This leadership will encourage more to follow. It doesn't come naturally to us as Australians, but don't look at it as chest beating, look at it as leadership for good. We're going to have all the links available in our show notes including how you can get involved with Good360. If you want to keep up to date with Add to Cart, head over to addtocart.com and sign up for our newsletter. We'll alert you when new episodes are available and give you the summarized versions for when you can't listen straight away. Until next time, thanks for listening and keep Adding to Cart.
