How Co-ops Can Use Digital Tools Effectively to Advance Social Justice

How can co-ops take advantage of the potential of digital technology while maintaining their unique relational character?

The answer is not simple. Cooperatives are unique animals. They move at the speed of trust, and trust is built through engagement, collaboration, and pursuing their triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. Face-to-face engagement, real conversations, and relationship building are critical.

Used improperly, technology adds yet another layer of separation for the marginalized communities that cooperatives work to protect, serve, and empower. But if a balance is forged between people power and the power of technology, cooperative wins can result.

The Challenge of Digitalization

If a balance is forged between people power and the power of technology, cooperative wins can result.

Conventional businesses, emerging cooperatives, and long-standing cooperative enterprises each have distinct approaches and challenges in digital transformation. Conventional businesses prioritize competitive edge and rapid scalability, supported by significant financial and technological resources. Emerging cooperatives leverage flexibility, member engagement, and cost-effective tools to drive innovation and community impact. Long-standing cooperative enterprises balance tradition with digital innovation, emphasizing sustainability and member inclusivity. Understanding these differences helps in tailoring digital transformation strategies to suit the unique needs and strengths of each type of organization.

In the early days of digital transformation, the primary focus was improving products, processes, and employee relations. Today—in part due to COVID-19 forcing many businesses to digitally transform or hybridize in some way to support a brick-and-mortar operation—customer experience drives innovation and imagination.

Many of these companies, retailers, and conventional counterparts have mastered the use of these tools. Online shopping platforms and large retail media networks that drive brand awareness and loyalty now meet consumers where they are, not only at the “point of sale.” And, with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), those features are already accelerating. From travel to food to entertainment, these experiences have all been digitally transformed, and so have we. Consumers expect engagement, interactivity, seamlessness, and convenience. This is the new digital norm.

While the urgency and demands of consumers during COVID-19 accelerated digitalization, the demand to serve customer-focused needs and expectations continues to rise.

A Window of Opportunity

During COVID-19, I worked as a food co-op general manager on the front lines. It swiftly became clear that we were going to have to launch the online stores we had been putting off. Not because we simply thought it was a nice idea but because of necessity. We had to pivot or die.

To pivot, we had to innovate and get creative. To innovate, we needed people and technology. After much discussion, agreement, and disagreement, we made it so. We had to focus on priorities and what the needs of our members were.

A survey of cooperatives in African countries about their resilience during and post-COVID-19 by the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC), showed that digital innovation was an essential component to the survival of many cooperatives overseas as well.

Digital technologies have shifted the structure of marketing departments, and have given them tools to expand their reach, engage deeper, and connect people.

Although the pandemic isn’t as urgent as it once was, it remains urgent to reimagine how to meet human needs in the economy. And, of course, the social conditions that many cooperatives are seeking to resolve have only compounded. We know that cooperation is a thoughtful solution to solving the social problems of today or historically. The challenge is to combine cooperative and technological innovation.

The cooperative task now is to shift our mindsets. If we want to transform the economy through cooperatives, and if want to solve the social problems that cooperatives were designed to solve, it is essential that we find ways to tap into the potential that digital technology provides. And while Big Tech and big corporations continue to drive capitalism and dominate markets, today’s technology is more accessible and affordable than ever before. We have a window of opportunity to own the change that we want to see.

Co-ops and Technology: Nuts and Bolts

Cooperatives, by nature, tend to move slowly. However, the advantage of that approach is that when we take the time to strategize effectively, we move together with a solid foundation to build upon.

But how do cooperatives and independent retailers, grocers, and media houses, to name a few, even begin to compete moving forward? In an era where technology evolves faster than ever, cooperative organizations and enterprises face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. A strategic approach and the right tools are key.

Here are a few examples of what this can mean:

• Marketing

The traditional marketing mix was built on product, price, and promotions. Now an essential new part of that mix involves people and processes. Digital technologies have shifted the structure of marketing departments and have given them tools to expand their reach, engage deeper, and connect people.

Lifting stories off the page, creating multimedia content, producing podcasts ready for distribution, and making it seamless for users to build relationships are critical tools for building cooperative engagement. Cooperatives can leverage today’s digital tools through such means as digital newsletters, audio clips, audiobooks, digital ad boards, “Principle 6” (cooperation among cooperatives) digital campaigns, podcasting, and live streaming.

• Community Engagement

Community building has long been central to the cooperative model. Platforms like Circle, Mighty Networks, or Skool can help facilitate such tasks as onboarding new member-owners, launching online classes, and hosting public events (like community speakers).

• Customer Relations Management

Known as CRMs, these support the integration of databases, email automation, digital marketing campaigns, invoicing, and analytics. Tools like Hubspot, Salesforce, or Keap for larger co-ops—or products like Paperbell or Kartra for smaller co-ops or consultants—can help cooperatives streamline workflows, communication, and payment processing through automation while solving for the bottlenecks, duplication of efforts, and other inefficiencies in manual or paper systems.

• Communications

Telling stories about the people within the cooperative movement isn’t something cooperatives do enough of on their own. Cooperatives can ensure their stories, values, work, and progress stay on the minds of their community members, making it easier to build social and relational wealth that propels co-ops forward. Platforms like Cision—a press release distribution service that helps connect journalists, influencers, and media outlets to their audiences—offers a wide range of services to distribute co-op stories and measure results.

Building a Broader Ecosystem

Digital transformation is already impacting co-ops. For example, consumer cooperatives are integrating more e-commerce platforms and digital loyalty programs to enhance member engagement and streamline operations. Worker cooperatives benefit from collaborative tools and project management software, fostering efficient teamwork and transparent decision-making processes. Agricultural cooperatives are leveraging data analytics, IoT (internet of things), and precision farming technologies to optimize production and distribution. Financial cooperatives (credit unions) are adopting fintech solutions like mobile banking and blockchain to improve member services and transaction security. Housing cooperatives use digital platforms for property management and member communication, enhancing community living experiences.

Co-ops…can use digital technology [for] mapping projects, which are critical to movement building and strengthening collective infrastructure.

Regional and national cooperative groups are using digital platforms to support cooperatives of all kinds, unite cooperatives nationally, share ideas, and post events. Through digital technology, the possibilities of uniting across municipalities, cities, nations, and the globe are endless. Not only can co-ops use technology to connect externally, but they also can use digital technology to connect with each other through mapping projects, which are critical to movement building and strengthening collective infrastructure.

Leveraging the newly emerging platform cooperative idea introduced by Trebor Scholz and the Platform Cooperative Consortium out of New York’s New School also has potential for the cooperative ecosystem. A platform co-op is a digital platform—a website or mobile app that is designed to provide a service or sell a product—that is collectively owned and governed by the people who depend on and participate in it.

A few examples: Up & Go is an online sharing economy platform owned by its workers that brings together several cooperatively owned cleaning businesses for fair work conditions and livable wages in a sector usually characterized by informal, precarious, and low-paid work. PescaData is a digital ecosystem used by over 300,000 fishermen in Mexico who use collected data to support their businesses, connect with other fishermen and organizations, sell products, and come up with joint solutions to problems. Stocksy is a stock photo site where contributing photographers are also owners.

Digital Mindset and Resilience

Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley, coauthor of The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI, calls for reimagining the future of work and organizational culture through remote environments. She and her coauthor Paul Leonardi label their desired approach a “digital mindset.” She also emphasizes the transformations necessary to sustain remote workforces in her book, Remote Work Revolution: Succeeding from Anywhere.

One implication of Neeley’s work is the need to focus internally to better support staff as well as acting externally to better engage with the world. For cooperatives, that means operational, social, relational, environmental, financial, and technological considerations for each stakeholder. It’s a tall order, but one that cooperatives are uniquely equipped to meet.

Co-op leaders working and serving in today’s economy and technological era will achieve more successful outcomes when they are equipped to understand that digital transformation is an ongoing process of evolution. With that understanding, the pressure of “everything needs to be done perfectly right now” is taken out of the equation, and excitement about the potential benefits and possibilities can emerge.

A spirit of creativity and reimagining of the current environment will allow for more discovery and the fluidity required to evolve slowly and scale successfully. When everyone in the organization can experience this excitement and inspired action and when they sense that they too can contribute to changes to come, the magic begins.

Cooperatives can leverage digital solutions to accomplish their goals, but they will need a few ingredients to succeed. Digital tools can support this work. But none of it can be accepted, initiated, or sustained without the right mindset.