Spend Cyber Monday With Goodwill®

Help Fund Job Training while Shopping Online

ROCKVILLE, Md., Dec. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Need a place to make all of your holiday purchases quickly, safely and economically? Shopgoodwill.com^® is the place to go!

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With only 26 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the holiday shopping season is more condensed than usual. In fact, it's the shortest holiday shopping season since 2002. For that reason, retail analysts are predicting that more consumers will shop online than ever before, with Cyber Monday leading the way in online purchases.

Adobe Digital Index estimates that Cyber Monday sales will be up 15 percent from last year to more than $2.27 billion, the single biggest online shopping day ever.

One of the best places to shop online is shopgoodwill.com, the nation's first and only nonprofit Internet auction site. Not only can shoppers find almost anything on their holiday shopping lists — from grandfather clocks to Beanie Babies — but purchases provide job training programs, employment placement services and community programs around the country.

In continuous operation for nearly fifteen years, shopgoodwill.com is ranked as one of the Top 10 online auction sites and was listed among Time.com's "50 Best Websites of 2009."

"When you buy from shopgoodwill.com, you know you're making a secure purchase from a trusted brand," said Jim Gibbons, president and CEO of Goodwill Industries International. "You can feel good about your purchases, knowing that the revenues from all sales go directly into job training and other support services for families."

There is no fee to sign up or bid on items on shopgoodwill.com. All items are collected from the Goodwill agencies across North America that participate.

Online shoppers can bid on any of the more than 63,000 items for sale at any given time, including apparel, artwork, electronics, furniture, handbags, jewelry, music, toys, hardware, and much more. A search function allows site visitors to sort items by seller and browse locally available inventory through mobile technology. The site has generated more than $212 million to support Goodwill's job training programs since its inception in 1999.

ABOUT GOODWILL INDUSTRIES INTERNATIONAL
Goodwill Industries International is a network of 165 community-based agencies in the United States and Canada with affiliates in 13 other countries. Goodwill agencies are innovative and sustainable social enterprises that fund job training programs, employment placement services and other community-based programs by selling donated clothing and household items in more than 2,700 stores and online at shopgoodwill.com^®. Goodwill also builds revenue and creates jobs by contracting with businesses and government agencies to provide a wide range of commercial services, including packaging and assembly, food service preparation, and document imaging and shredding. In 2012, more than 6.7 million people in the United States and Canada benefited from Goodwill's career services. Goodwill channels 82 percent of its revenues directly into its programs and services.

To find a Goodwill location near you, use the online locator at www.goodwill.org, or call (800) GOODWILL. Follow us on Twitter:@GoodwillIntl, and find us on Facebook: GoodwillIntl.

SOURCE Goodwill Industries International