At the Co-op AGM 2016 we said that we’re going to use digital to make membership stronger and more vibrant.
Since then we’ve been engaging with members online and in their communities to give as many people a voice as possible. We shared the data we’d found around our active members once we’d defined what ‘active’ means back in August.
Part of the reason for publishing that data is to be clear on where we’re starting from. We can use these numbers to find out how much stronger and how much more vibrant the new Co-op membership is, and how engaged people are with it.
The data we collect belongs to all of us – that’s the nature of a co-operative. This is why we’ve created a Co-op Membership Data page where you can see:
- the number of active members
- the number of new members
- how much our members have earned for themselves and local causes
- how much members have spent in the core business
We’ll update the numbers every week and blog regularly about the progress we’re making.
Rufus Olins – Chief Membership Officer
Mike Bracken – Chief Digital Officer
It strikes me that the definition of active members needs to be much more robust. From the figures you provide, 3.92m members have earned £9.72m in member rewards – that’s an average of only 2.5p each, or qualifying purchases of just over 41p! I would suggest a minimum definition ought to be at least one transaction per month to be meaningful (not just any time in the last 12 months).
Oops, my figures are actually out by a factor of 100 – confusing pence with pounds! So that’s an average of qualifying purchases of just over £4 per week (10 weeks since launch), which is still not brilliant but maybe acceptable at this stage.
Perhaps a more accurate measure of membership is to take the threshold of trading with the Co-op Group for eligibility to vote in the AGM ( £250 ) and only count those members who present their card and who spend in total more than £62.50 a quarter.
It may not look so good but it will show much more realistic active members totals.
Just counting all who present a card in the past three months does not show much in the way of dedication or commitment from customers.
Do you think you could publish the actual data, as well as a web site? “Data” implies something is that is machine readable. Obviously one could parse the website in to data, but that isn’t the typical definition of “publishing data”. Thanks! 🙂
By the way.
Why can I post a comment on here by simply entering my email address and name yet I need a WordPress Account to ‘like’ something ?