The Co-op BWS harnesses membership-base

The Co-op has launched a new membership card that rewards customers who buy its own label wines and products with money back, as it taps into feedback from  its membership-base to better inform its BWS ranging.

The new membership card scheme, which went live yesterday, means customers can earn 5% of their spend on own label products – including beers, wines and spirits – which are ‘banked’ and can used towards own label products in subsequent shopping trips.

The scheme also makes a donation to a local good causes, with 1% of customers’ spend on own label products per trip donated to a community project.

A spokesman said the launch was the latest step in an ambitious drive “to create a Co-op economy across the UK and champion a better way of doing business” and a central plank of the retailer’s £1bn investment and rebuild strategy. It is aiming to boost the number of members to over a million and increase the percentage of sales from its members from 20% to 50%.

Shoppers can become a member of Coop for £1.

Insight to inform BWS

BWS boss Simon Cairns recently told db the team was making greater use of the insights gathered through sales data, market research and membership data and had used this to inform its range review and the ranging across different store types across its estates.

It appears that the retailer is engaging with its membership-base further via the new card to glean information that better informs its beers wines and spirits ranging and merchandising. This week it launched a wine sampling initiative designed to gather customer feedback online on its wines that proved so popular it was closed early.

The “sample and share’ initiative offered 50 members the chance to sign up to get a free voucher for a bottle of its premium own-label Shiraz along with tasting guidelines in exchange for tasting feedback through an online survey that it said would help its wine team develop “real wine reviews – by members, for members” that would appear in online tasting note and on in-store promotions.

It was originally designed to run until 27th September, but closed within just one day due to the high response from members.

“We’ve been bowled over by just how many of you want to take part in a spot of wine tasting,” it said, adding that it was likely to offer “more opportunites” in future.

It is also running a membership initiatives to boost its range of local ales, saying it wanted to tap into its members knowledge of local breweries and ales to bring “a real local flavour” to the shelves of The Co-op.

“[Members] are superbly placed to provide us with the real ale insights we’re seeking”, it said.