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TOO GOOD TO GO BUSINESS MODEL

“BEYOND LEFTOVERS”: SAVING THE PLANET, ONE MEAL AT THE TIME

If you missed the first part of Too Good To Go case study, click here 👈

Social Impact

As seen earlier, food waste is critical global issue, as TGTG unfortunately knows way too well. The negative effects of food waste extend beyond increased carbon emissions and resource depletion (i.e. water, soil, etc.). As a matter of fact, they determine significant economic losses on the food industry too.

Yet, as explained in this article by Harvard School of Public Health, we should break down this major challenge into two main pillars. On one hand, there is indeed “food loss”, occurring before the food reaches the end consumer. Here, inefficiencies may arise during production, storage, and/or distribution of food products. On the other hand, there is “food waste“, happing after the food reaches customers, and thus limited to the consumption phase.

Among the two, Too Good To Go focuses the latter.

Customers & Beneficiaries + Value Propositions

Being a social enterprise driven by environmental impact, the true, main beneficiary of TGTG should be the environment itself. The platform contributes indeed to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and resource squandering, all while promoting responsible consumption at a customer level.

This said, Too Good To Go builds on principles of matchmaking models, thus it wouldn’t be financially viable without paying customers. Here, customers include both the eco-conscious, end consumers purchasing surplus food, as well as restaurants and food businesses aiming to minimize waste.

For the former ones, the value proposition is represented by the opportunity to access affordable meals at a reduced price (i.e. €3-5 “magic bags” with roughly 1kg of food originally valued €10-15), whereas for the latter ones it’s the chance of generating additional revenue streams and of positioning themselves as eco-friendly stores. And for both, a new opportunity to contribute to unnecessary carbon emissions and resource wastage.

Key Activities + Channels

When it comes to key activities, TGTG manages a wide array of strategic and operationalactions. These activities mostly fall into three main categories:

1. Platform Management: Too Good To Go app requires continuous technological development and maintenance to ensure overall platform’s functionalities. Here, constantly enhancing user experience is critical to make sure customers can easily discover and purchase surplus food found nearby.
2. Partner Onboarding & Support: This crucial activity involves onboarding new restaurants, bars, supermarkets, and other kinds of local food businesses. New partners need indeed support and training not only in listing surplus food into the app, but also in analyzing their data and crafting marketing strategies.
3. Marketing & Outreach: Lastly, marketing strategies such as social media campaigns, collaborations with influencers, and community events are central for the organization to build committed communities and expand its consumer base worldwide.

Based on that, social media, word-of-mouth and partnerships with NGOs should be considered TGTG’s main strategic channels to amplify its reach.

Key Partnerships & Stakeholders + Key Resources

As seen in the previous section, partnerships play a fundamental role for Too Good To Go’s growth. By way of example, NGOs such as local Red Cross and strategic alliances with global brands such as Starbucks, Carrefour, Unilever, Nestlé represents platforms to increase TGTG’s visibility, brand authority and therefore impact. But the list of so-called “Waste Warriors” goes on, since the company operates in 17 different countries.

In terms of key resources, we must first highlight the mobile application itself, thanks to which customers can easily purchase and pickup “Surprise Boxes” containing surplus food from local stores. Then, brand authority became a true pillar for TGTG growth, as today it’s associated with trustworthiness, strong reliability and impact-driven communities. Finally, a third strategic resource for the organization is the internal team, comprised of more than 500 employees as of 2023.

Conclusion

Too Good To Go is a powerful example of social enterprises tackling global challenges through innovative business models. 

As seen, TGTG provides a practical solution to address food waste, facilitating the sale of surplus food thanks to its online app. By matching sellers of unsold food with conscious, responsible consumers, the company generates positive impacts for the environment as well as economic benefits to both parties involved.

Today, the platform continues saving millions of meals from going to waste. As we move forward, it is thus crucial to comprehend how initiatives like Too Good To Go leverage technology, scalability and impact making to contribute to a more sustainable world. As the fight against societal challenges requires collective action, we invite you join TGTG and to keep following Impact Jungle to stay up to date with relevant content 🙂

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