New App Lets Shoppers Haggle With Merchants

Greentoe wants to change the way people shop by giving them a convenient opportunity to by goods at the minimum advertised price – a tacitly agreed upon floor at which retailers will not sell certain goods (at the request of the manufacturer). What began has a “name your price” application, the site allowed consumers to post the price they were willing to pay for a certain good or service and provided a liklihood that they would find a buyer at their stated price.

The site allows retailers to skirt the limits of minimum pricing without setting official rates below the MAP rate, according to Venture Beat.

People “don’t want to deal with haggling, but they also don’t want to get not the lowest price,” Greentoe co-founder Joe Marrapodi told VentureBeat in an interview.

The service has raised more than $1 million in funding and is looking to expand their service package and expand into mobile, The new is app is designed to allow both sides of a transaction to come to an agreement without spelling out their prices. It works thanks to a dial that shoppers press and slide. When it turns green, an agreement with a retailer has been made.

Right now, the site is largely limited to electronic equipment, but Marrapodi already knows where he wants to be next.

“My vision is that we’re gonna be selling paper towels in five years,” Marrapodi said.