Greentoe's Innovation: Business Model and Strategic Analysis

This report explores Greentoe's innovative business model, focusing on its unique approach where buyers propose prices, and sellers accept bids. Founded by Joe Marrapodi, Greentoe has revolutionized online shopping by empowering buyers and fostering competition among retailers. The company's business model has evolved to enhance customer acquisition and offer competitive pricing. While facing challenges from established e-commerce giants like Amazon, Greentoe leverages its innovative concept to attract a growing customer base. The report analyzes Greentoe's strategic positioning, competition, and performance, highlighting opportunities for expansion and recommendations for future growth, including potential collaborations with other e-commerce platforms. Desklib offers this and many other solved assignments for students.

Running head: INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT
Innovation Project Report for "Greentoe"
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 1
Table of Contents
Executive summary:...................................................................................................................2
Origin of the innovation:............................................................................................................2
Business Model and innovative projects:...................................................................................3
Opportunities and challenges for the company:.........................................................................3
Strategic positioning:.................................................................................................................4
Competition and performance:...................................................................................................5
The innovator’s method:............................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................6
References:.................................................................................................................................7

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 2
Executive summary:
The report discusses about the innovative business model that Greentoe has come up
where it gives a unique platform to the buyers to set their own price of the product and the
seller can easily take the opportunity to sell the product with the best possible and negotiating
price. This is definitely innovative as it is different from the old e-commerce business
activities and is based on a unique business model.
Origin of the innovation:
The revolutionary online shopping company Grentoe has been founded by Joe
Marrapodi. The idea of this innovative business is based on the pricing where the buyer just
has to propose the price of a product and the first retailer to agree with the bid sells the
product (Greentoe.com, 2018). The founder claims that this platform acts as a customer
acquisition vehicle and helps in becoming retail partners. This unique idea helped to perform
the company since it was founded because the seller constantly cycles around the online
inventory in order to sell their product. Both buyer and seller can connect with each other
through the internet creating the largest possible platform of buying and selling. The online
platform continued to be innovative as this platform has been able to offer the best price
after negotiation from both the parties involved in the e-commerce activities (Greentoe.com,
2018). The additional innovations introduced by the company involve the step towards
sustainability where one can carry out business activities through online and thus contributing
towards a greener environment. The country of origin is Mountain View, California, USA.
At present the company has not expanded in other countries and is operating in US along
with its major competitors (Greentoe.com, 2018). Considering the increasing competitors and
innovative ideas in the business, Greentoe had to adapt its business activities and it offers
more options for both sellers and buyers to choose from maintaining a certain level of
sustainability.

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 3
Business Model and innovative projects:
The business model followed by the company in the beginning was inclined
towards the e-commerce business where the particular site is the platform of buying and
selling of products. However, Greentoe’s business model is unique because unlike the
salesperson or the war of discount and negotiation, it gives the direct opportunity to the buyer
to set their own price and the sellers can match the same and can sell their products. With
time and increasing competition, the business model has evolved (Greentoe.com, 2018). As
for instance, Greentoe has launched more reasonable and extensive medium where the price
as proposed by the buyer is calculated automatically and it recommends the best offer price to
the retailers in the platform. The best bid wins the sale. In fact, the business model has also
evolved in a way to acquire more and more consumers and the retailers who can offer the
lowest possible price. At present, the business model has now changed slightly compared
to the previous model that the business used to follow. Now Greentoe has opened up the
platform for various retailers who sell various kinds of appliances with an ‘all in’ price of the
products offered by the different retailers (Greentoe.com, 2018). The business model has to
change in order to meet the increasing competition of the e-commerce market. In this
platform, any buyer can come up with a price that seems suitable for him after a lot of search
in both online and offline platforms. Thus it can be said that Greentoe is the ultimate place for
the buyers to get the product in the best possible price.
Opportunities and challenges for the company:
The biggest success of the company is the increasing popularity and the regular
registration of new buyers and sellers in the platform. It has been found that there are more
than 36.6K fans on Facebook and more than 63.2K followers on Twitter who are the
followers of the site and can be considered as the buyers and sellers in the platform
(Greentoe.com, 2018). In terms of failures, the company is yet to reach the heights of the e-

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 4
commerce sites like Amazon that offers A-Z products and at a competitive pricing also within
a short delivery span. The opportunities are wide and opened for the company to expand in
various countries and also to increase the customer and seller base in the online platform. In
fact, the company has also received huge funding to expand its operational activities. The
business model is highly accepted and with the increase in the online purchasing activities,
the opportunity of e-commerce activities is increasing. As commented by Foss and Saebi,
(2017), target group irrespective of any particular age group are involving in the online
purchasing method to save their time and at the same time to get the best possible deal in the
product.
The challenges faced by the company were to introduce the new and unique concept
of stating a price of the product and then waiting for the seller to accept the price. The present
e-commerce sites like Amazon, e-Bay were based on selling the products but after applying
certain discounts and offering best competitive price to the buyers (Greentoe.com, 2018).
However, the unique concept has helped to overcome these challenges and is attracting more
and more customers. The company has always evolved towards the betterment but there
have not been any significant dramatic transformations in the business activities. The
innovative idea and the business model is more or less similar since the beginning expect for
the fact that the company has come up with several strategies like involving more sellers and
offering the best price by reducing the expenses that the sellers have to undergo in case if
there is an involvement of middleman (Martins, Rindova & Greenbaum, 2015).
Strategic positioning:
As already discussed, the products are sold by bidding where the first price is
proposed by the buyer and the seller agrees to it. This automatically gives rise to the
competitive pricing strategy in the online market (Greentoe.com, 2018). The entire business
model is based on the digital or online strategy. A buyer has to sign up and create an

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 5
account and then one can easily bid from the huge number of products available online. At
the same time, the price is fixed by the buyer and not the seller (Bocken et al., 2014). This
has given a tough competition to the other e-commerce sites. The company has been found to
advertise by the means of online social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The
company has its official pages in these platforms where the company advertises its business
model. Apart from this, the company has its own website where advertisement activities are
also evident clearly.
Competition and performance:
At present, the company has been found to focus on increasing the customer base and
thus, the revenue generation is low compared to the expected amount. The revenue of the
company is nearly 3 million in present time (Greentoe.com, 2018). At present the major
competitors are the e-commerce sites like Amazon and retailers.com that also work on a
similar principle or business model. The innovative business model has been growing
towards increasing its competition in the market. However, with its increasing popularity
and the unique concept, it is more likely that the customer base will increase and the
company can easily compete with the present competitors. The business model where the
buyer is the one who decides the price and gives the scope of great bargaining is the
innovative idea compared to the competitors (Zeithammer et al., 2016). Greentoe is
definitely a follower of the innovations as the idea of the business is inclined towards the e-
commerce business. It is not a completely new concept and thus, cannot be considered as a
leader of innovations.
The innovator’s method:
As stated by Fay and Zeithammer (2016), when a company is started by the means of
an innovative method, it is referred to an innovator’s method rather than a lean start up. The
business model is based on online business and thus there is no scope of lean start up. It can

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 6
be commented that apart from the goods, this online company can also create a diverse range
of products like food items or clothing and accessories for the consumers. The innovative
approach can be easily applied in this particular business type (Greentoe.com, 2018).
Conclusion:
The report has helped to understand the importance of innovative and sustainable
approach undertaken by the companies in the recent time to attract a huge customer base in a
wider region. The Greentoe has evolved largely in its business journey and it is expected that
the company will flourish further in near and far future from now like from 10-30 years from
now. The company is vulnerable to both online and offline retailers due to its unique business
model and the kind of business it offers. This concept and the company are definitely on a
newer side and can easily compete with the age old retailers or business bodies. The e-
commerce companies like Amazon can gain better insights. For more innovations and
trajectory in this company, it can be recommended that the company can in fact go along with
the other e-commerce companies to increase the business activities.

INNOVATION PROJECT REPORT 7
References:
Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to
develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65,
42-56.
Fay, S., & Zeithammer, R. (2016). Bidding for Bidders? How the Format for Soliciting
Supplier Participation in NYOP Auctions Impacts Channel Profit. Management
Science, 63(12), 4324-4344.
Foss, N. J., & Saebi, T. (2017). Fifteen years of research on business model innovation: How
far have we come, and where should we go?. Journal of Management, 43(1), 200-227.
Greentoe.com (2018) THE NEW WAY TO SAVE - NAME YOUR PRICE Retrieved
from:https://www.greentoe.com/ [Accessed on: 4-12-2018]
Martins, L. L., Rindova, V. P., & Greenbaum, B. E. (2015). Unlocking the hidden value of
concepts: a cognitive approach to business model innovation. Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 9(1), 99-117.
Zeithammer, R., Stich, L., Spann, M., & Häubl, G. (2016). Paying for a Chance to Save
Money: Buyer Behavior in Name-Your-Own-Price Markets with Bidding Fees.