A β-D-N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAcβ) ligand equipped with a free thiol through a hydrophilic PEG3 spacer. The thiol reacts with maleimides to form stable thioether conjugates or with other thiols to form disulfide bonds; it is also compatible with thiol-gold chemistry for surface immobilization. This compound enables the construction of hepatocyte-targeted therapeutics and research tools that exploit the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), which is highly expressed on liver hepatocytes and binds GalNAc-containing ligands with high affinity.