As one dot-com company after another falls by the wayside in this struggling economy, a business-to-business Web site for the green industry continues to flourish.
Plantfind.com, launched in 1999 to facilitate free transactions between buyers and sellers of plant material, has been labeled "the dot-com that could" in a September 2001 study by Gartner Inc., a Stamford, Conn.,-based company that identifies and analyzes trends and technologies that shape the course of business.
"Plantfind.com's nonthreatening approach has allowed it to establish a central position between buyers and sellers, an extensive community of members," the report stated. "It currently has more than 3,700 member companies, including seven of the top 10 growers. Plantfind.com provides dependable security, seamless transactions, fast order processing and valuable industry research."
The company's president, Michael Ferraro, explained that Plantfind.com has been able to flourish because of its platform. Currently, the site offers more than 238 million individual plant listings from over 1700 growers. Site features include electronic procurement and bid submission, online auction for excess inventory, catalogue aggregation and comprehensive customer support programs.
"During this dot-com shakeout, we are proud of our accomplishments and to be able to serve as a model of success when so many are struggling or have failed," Ferraro said in a press release.
Constantly evaluating its users' needs and adding features to accommodate those findings is one way Plantfind.com has managed to succeed, according to the study. For example, the company built a system that can bridge to a cellular phone or PDA with a notification that an order is pending since most of its customers are off site during the day.
In addition, the research showed that Plantfind.com found success by practicing the basic tenets of good business: realistic financial approach, systematic analysis of its target market, a multichannel approach to content management and employing a respected management team with an extensive industry network. "Other dot-com marketplaces that have survived the current fall out, brick-and-mortar organizations and new entrants should evaluate PlantFind.com's success factors in laying short, tactical steps to success."