As of January 24^th 2024, the Co-Op has ditched its long-standing rewards programme in favour of expanded price cuts for its members. Offering food, insurance and banking, the Co-Op Group’s wide membership base can now find even more exclusive pricing across all of its services instead of just food purchases.

The Co-Op rewards scheme

More than ever, businesses are concerned with winning customer loyalty. Consumers have more options than ever before, especially with the easy availability of online services. As such, businesses host a wide range of customer-friendly offers to draw in new people and satisfy existing customers. This is taken to the extreme in online industries, best seen with streaming platforms and iGaming. While company approaches vary, it’s common to see free trials for a streaming service, or free spins to play slot games. Offering free samples of a product/service is a timeless marketing tactic that has become even more cost-effective for digital goods and experiences.

The Co-Op is no stranger to competition against its ever-expanding catalogue of services. However, they are best known for their supermarket, where competition is fierce to provide the best prices for local customers. This led to the creation of The Co-Op Rewards Scheme, where registered members earned 2p for every £1 spent with their services and received coupons for other products.

Co-Op member prices

Alongside its reward Scheme, the leading supermarket retailer introduced member prices for select products in its stores. Paying £1 for a Co-Op membership card enables customers to get reduced prices on the brand’s Everyday Essentials range spanning bread, milk and other commonly bought food products. When introduced, customers could save up to £300 a year from the price cuts that the membership provided. Additionally, other products were cycled in and out of the range, allowing discounts on more goods over time.

BREAKING NEWS Everyday Essentials that Co-op Members can now save more on:

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7. Loads more but you’ll have to pop in store to find out

— Co-op (@coopuk) August 3, 2023

The Co-Op weren’t the only retailer to introduce this kind of pricing scheme. In 2020, Tesco launched a similar pricing reduction for Clubcard members while Sainsbury’s partnered with Nectar to do the same. Pricing reductions for members seem to have become the most effective loyalty scheme, leading to The Co-Op’s latest overhaul.

Co-Op’s 2024 price cuts

Now The Co-Op is scrapping its 2p for every £1 spent rewards scheme. Members will stop receiving credit for their purchases across the brand’s services, and pre-existing credit must be used before December 31^st, 2024.

Before this decision was announced, there were signs that The Co-Op aimed to overhaul its membership system. In the summer of 2023, they were planning to invest £240 million into the programme. At the same time, they announced a five-year plan that aimed to sustain five million current members while attracting one million new customers to the fold. Shortly after, their memberships saw approximately 500,000 new members join, reaching an eight-year high.

After that growth subsided, it’s apparent that The Co-Op are taking further action to make their membership scheme more attractive. While they are removing the rewards scheme, the retailer said that “members will now benefit from a significantly increased number of member prices and deals in all our businesses.” It’s not yet confirmed how much members price catalogues will expand. Risking consumer backlash, the continued growth of The Co-Op’s membership base hinges on just how much this new members prices scheme will cover.

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