Today we’ve released a new improved version of co-operative.coop. Previously, if you went to coop.co.uk or co-operative.coop you would see exactly the same content. Not anymore. They’re now 2 separate websites, each supporting different needs.
We’ve split up the content so that:
- coop.co.uk is the way to access our products and services
- co-operative.coop is the way you can find out how our co-operative is working and how you can get involved with it
Fixing the basics
The new co-operative.coop fixes a lot of the basics. The new site is:
- responsive – it works well on mobile, tablets and laptops
- fast – it takes less than a second to load a page compared with 6.5 seconds on the old site
- secure – it uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) when loading a web page which means that when you use some web browsers you see a green padlock
This is important because next month the Chrome web browser will highlight non HTTPS sites as not being secure.
The content’s better too
All the changes above are the features you’d expect on any modern website. Like we said, they’re the basics. The biggest change we’ve made is the content. It’s very easy to create a lot of content but it’s much harder work to create good, concise content. For this reason we’ve removed hundreds of pages so that the content meets the needs of the people using the site.
We’re not finished
Changing to co-operative.coop is just the start. The improvements will be ongoing. Previously an external company looked after the site for us which meant only occasional changes.
Our new site was built by our in-house team. They work in an agile way. We ask for feedback at the bottom of each page which means the team is continually listening to our members and anyone else using the site.
Doing things ourselves and working in this way means we can iterate quickly, and often. Making it better every time we make a change.
We’ve worked with our Group Secretariat, consulted our Members’ Council and have shown the new site to the Digital Working Group on several occasions. Thank you to all.
Thanks also to Peter Brumby and all the team who’ve made this happen.
We’re going to continue to work together to improve the new site for our members.
Mike Bracken
Chief Digital Officer
Nick Crofts
President of National Members’ Council
Co-op Digital Blog 
Hi Mike. Thanks for the update, but I admit this one hasn’t hit home with me.
I thought the move to coop.co.uk was ‘Back to Co-op’ but now we’re going ‘Back to co-operative’? The content to me seems like it should be part of coop.co.uk rather than something different. Even with the information above I find the distinction between the two unclear, and for users navigating directly e.g. via google etc I imagine the confusion would be more pronounced.
I wasn’t able to find a feedback form on the main page, but I admit the look and feel on the new home page also doesn’t feel as good as our coop.co.uk. I’m using a widescreen laptop, and maybe it does look good across devices but the landing page for me is largely the new coop image and therefore at a glance doesn’t give any content beyond the top banner and an over-sized image.
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The website has got a lot better and the digital experience has got a lot more interactive in the last year, it is great to see the Co-op’s online presence grow and develop. It’s also fun to hear what you’re doing and how.
While I love the idea of having a more mobile-friendly site, especially when it comes to membership, having two domain names does seem a bit confusing. It might be more confusing because in ‘co-operative.coop’ there is a hyphen, but it ‘coop.co.uk’ there isn’t a hyphen.
It looks like someone wants to separate the democratic side from the sales-based side, but this is a surprising choice for you to make as I understand that you and your team spent your time at your previous employer trying to get everything on to one website…
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Hurrah, ‘Travel’ monstrosity is gone. Now is the time to remove photos of the Pharmacy from Estates.coop .
Looks to me like the 2nd website co-operative.coop is more designed to be displayed on integrated tablets for membership areas/boards/walls in-store (food). Beside that I have no idea why anyone would go here: imagery and formating has been removed, leaving a basic grid pattern of text options.
Essentially on coop,co.uk you have gutted the 2nd from the top horizontal bar of hyperlinks and put it at co-operative.coop; Why not just convert this rather than moving it. Create a a 2nd Vertical on the left, below the business units. and then tidy the bottom left and right boxes….
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