Co-Op
Building, scaling and optimising one of the UK’s most loved loyalty apps
Digitising loyalty for a 100-year-old member-owned institution
Co-op is one of the world’s largest consumer co operatives and the fifth biggest grocer in the UK.
Co-op is built on the principle that members share in both the rewards and the purpose of the organisation. With more than 7 million members and 2,500 stores nationwide, the challenge was to bring that membership experience to mobile without losing what had made it meaningful for generations.
Research showed members wanted a digital card on their phones and a single place to access their loyalty benefits. For Co-op, the opportunity went further: a great app could deepen engagement, increase active membership, and create a direct channel to communicate what makes Co-op different.
Apadmi became Co-op’s mobile product partner in 2017. Since then, we’ve worked together on product strategy, design, engineering, and continuous optimisation—a collaboration that continues to grow in ambition today
Building the Co-op Member experience on Mobile
Member research revealed a clear appetite for mobile-first membership, leading Apadmi and Co-op into almost two years of iterative design, development, and testing. After a colleague beta informed every stage of the product, the app launched publicly in 2020.
2017: Partnership begins
Apadmi begins product and technology strategy work with Co-op, scoping the membership app opportunity.
2018–2019: Design, build & colleague beta
Two years of iterative development, user research, and internal testing with Co-op colleagues across the UK.
2020: Public launch
The Co-op Membership App launches publicly, digitising membership cards, personalised weekly offers, and cause donations.
2021–2023: Scale & optimisation
ASO programme launches. App Store impressions grow 297% on iOS YoY. Downloads exceed 5 million cumulative. £100M donated to community causes.
2024–2025: New features & category leadership
Google Wallet integration, in-app games, Co-op Live perks, and personalised boosters drive weekly active users past 1.4 million. App reaches #1 iOS category rank.
IMPACT
The app has become an essential part of the membership experience for millions of Co-op members.
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1.4M
weekly active members
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2.1M
iOS downloads (2025)
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4.8*
iOS rating
Always-on innovation
New features that deepen engagement
The 2020 launch delivered a fully mobilised membership experience: a digital membership card with Apple Wallet integration, weekly personalised offers, the ability to choose local causes to donate reward balances to, and a view of each member’s rewards. This was a rethinking of what Co-op membership could mean in a mobile-first world.
Apadmi’s delivery team works in close partnership with Co-op’s product teams on a rolling roadmap, prioritising features that drive engagement, reward loyalty, and unlock new member value. Additional features and functionality has enrichened member experience and driven consistent engagement throughout the partnership.
Google Wallet Integration
Members save their digital membership card directly to Google Wallet for easy offline scanning in-store.
In-App Games & Challenges
Seasonal games let members win prizes, discounts, and free products. Interactive challenges, like buying Fairtrade items, unlock extra rewards.
Personalised Boosters
Members activate booster offers that reward specific purchase behaviours over time, increasing basket size and visit frequency.
Co-op Live Perks
Exclusive first-in-line presale ticket access at Co-op Live Arena in Manchester — a genuinely unique member benefit. The Lady Gaga presale drove a 261% spike in app opens.
Accessibility Enhancements
Upgraded interface with VoiceOver, voice control, and dark mode ensures membership is genuinely accessible to all.
Digital Member Pots
Members track Reward ££s and Share of the Profits digitally, making it easy to decide when to spend their accumulated benefits.
A/B Testing Framework
An always-on A/B testing programme drives data-backed product decisions, eliminating friction and personalising the experience at scale.
Impact
A community of members who return to the app because it genuinely improves their relationship with Co-op.
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43.5K
charity causes chosen weekly
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£37.19
average order value driven by the app
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1M+
weekly offer selections
A stable platform, built for scale
With more than 1.4 million people relying on the app every week, stability is non-negotiable.
Together, Apadmi and Co-op consistently maintain some of the strongest stability metrics in UK retail.
When challenges arise, Apadmi responds with targeted action plans—from redesigning the login experience and improving in-app guidance to adding store finder links and working closely with Co-op’s e-commerce team. Responding quickly and transparently to member feedback is a hallmark of the partnership, with Apadmi’s Product Marketing team playing a key role.
Results
The Co-op app achieves some of the strongest stability metrics in UK retail.
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99+%
crash free rating on iOS and Android
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5M+
cumulative app downloads since 2020
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86%
proportion of iOS reviews that are 5-star
ASO: Driving Discovery
Building a great app is only half the challenge. Sustained growth depends on helping the right people discover it, download it, and keep coming back. Through a dedicated App Store Optimisation (ASO) programme, Apadmi’s Product Marketing team has delivered consistent, compounding growth for Co-op.
In-App Events
In-App Events keep Co-op visible and relevant throughout the year. Campaigns range from seasonal promotions, such as Enjoy Summer with Co-op, to major cultural moments. A Co-op Live presale for Lady Gaga drove a 261% increase in app opens, outperforming every previous event, including in-app games.
In 2025, Apadmi delivered 23 In-App Events, covering 72% of the year and generating 1.8 million impressions and more than 41,000 app opens.
Following changes to Apple’s policies around prize-led promotions, the strategy shifted towards seasonal and value-led campaigns, maintaining strong performance while remaining platform compliant.
Custom Product Pages
Tailored App Store experiences consistently outperform the standard product page. During October and November 2025, a Communities-focused Custom Product Page achieved a 28% conversion rate, compared with 18% for the standard page—a 10 percentage point uplift.
Alongside this, Apadmi continuously optimises product page assets, A/B tests screenshots, refines keyword strategies, and identifies new promotional opportunities. The result is an app that’s not only well built, but consistently easy to discover.
A snapshot of the sustained visibility Apadmi’s ASO programme has delivered:
On Android, Co-op maintained an average category rank of 14 with a highest rank of #5, and spent 64 days in the top 10.
The Member Prices initiative — a £240 million, five-year investment saving members up to £300 annually — was promoted across both stores through targeted ASO activity, driving significant awareness of a genuinely compelling member benefit.
A Partnership Built for the Long Term
The partnership has matured from building a digital membership card into co-creating an economic, social, and ownership engine for Co-op. Weekly active users surpass the target set by Co-op by 40%. Offer selections consistently exceed 1 million per week, and the app continues to hold a top-10 position in its category.
As the roadmap evolves with always-on A/B testing, deeper personalisation, the ambition remains consistent: to make the Co-op Membership App the most rewarding and most loved retail app in the UK.
“Our long-term partnership with Apadmi has continuously added value to both Co-op members and the business as a whole. From design to development, ASO to strategy, Apadmi has been instrumental to the app’s success. We continue to work together to optimise and enrich the experience for our members. We work together as one integrated team to ensure we always deliver at pace.”
Gail Lyon, Head of Product (Membership & Customer) , Co-op
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