Coop is one of Denmark’s leading consumer goods retailers, a cooperative proudly owned by 2 million members and operating 900 stores across the country. As one of the first movers in Denmark’s FMCG market to embrace gamification, Coop recognized early on the power of play to build loyalty and create value for its members. This approach wasn’t just about following trends—it was a strategic decision to stand out in a competitive market where every competitor is fighting for customer attention.

The story of Coop’s gamification journey with Playable began over five years ago, with the launch of in-app games designed to engage users and build up their loyalty program. For the company it wasn’t enough to simply interact with customers; they wanted to strengthen those relationships even further, offering memorable experiences that added real value. Over the years, Coop expanded gamification beyond the app, incorporating it into their website and even within digital catalogs.

Today, Coop sees gamification is an important strategic tool that can support the stages of the loyalty journey map. Read on to discover how Coop Denmark uses gamification in a unique way, building in-app loyalty while also boosting their retail media strategy.

Engaging every player: how both basic and advanced games help Coop build loyalty 

Coop has been boosting brand loyalty through its app by offering a mix of simple and advanced games – a winning combination that keeps users coming back for more.

The basic luck-based games are particularly effective, awarding smaller prizes to a larger number of winners. With higher chances of winning, these games drive greater engagement and reward more customers. The prizes, always products already available in Coop stores, encourage winners to pick them up in person, increasing foot traffic. In 2023 alone, approximately one million delighted winners redeemed prizes at Coop locations.

In contrast, the advanced games feature bigger, more enticing prizes with lower chances of winning. These prizes are sourced from Coop’s online store and shipped directly by suppliers. By offering highly attractive rewards, these branded games capture users’ attention, keeping them engaged and encouraging extended app interaction.

Gamification: a win-win strategy for all stakeholders 

Gamification has proven to be beneficial not only to Coop, who managed to increase brand loyalty and app usage, but also to all parties involved. 

• Consumers benefit by receiving rewards such as free gifts, both small and big prizes. Gamification also offers intangible benefits, such as a sense of fun and achievement. Therefore, Coop’s app also contributes to growing an emotional connection between consumers and the brand through a great customer experience. Grocery shopping is not a boring task anymore – it is a fun daily activity! 
• Independent stores see increased foot traffic, improved customer loyalty, and higher basket values. With more excited winners visiting to redeem their rewards, the stores gain opportunities to upsell to customers who are tempted to purchase additional items. To put this into perspective, shoppers visit Coop stores 15% more often when they play games. 
• Suppliers gain greater brand visibility through the promotion of their products as branded prizes. These items often act as trials, introducing new customers to their offerings and boosting future sales.

This win-win approach highlights the widespread advantages of gamification, ensuring that every stakeholder gains value from the gamified app campaigns.

Moving forward with gamification 

Coop’s gamification journey with Playable showcases their commitment to creating deeper, more engaging customer experiences. What started as in-app games to boost user engagement and loyalty evolved into a broader strategy, integrating gamification across their retail media strategy, as well as their website and digital catalogs. This expansion highlights Coop’s dedication to innovation and delivering lasting value, turning interactions into meaningful connections that continue to strengthen over time.

Read more success stories

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Below is a case story from 2020 with COOP

COOP Denmark Christmas calendar case from 2020.

Coop wanted to improve their customer relationships and loyalty, which led to 24.8M game sessions played in app in 2020. See more on this case below:

Coop is Denmark’s largest consumer goods retailer. As a true co-operative, the company’s aim is to create value for its 1.8 million members. But the market is crowded, and no retail brand is immune to the efforts of competitors vying for customer attention. In fact, research shows that 83% of shoppers visit between four and nine grocery chains a year. Against this backdrop, Coop was looking for effective ways to engage, activate and delight its customer base, to strengthen customer loyalty and boost wallet share. 

Services used

• Playable gamification platform
• App integration for game campaigns

The process

Like many brands, Coop used its app to interact with its customers. However, the retailer was keen to strengthen those relationships even further: to create memorable experiences with the power to engage, as well as offering added value. 

Coop’s plan was to execute two game campaigns a week, to be accessed via the app. In terms of production volume and roll-out, this was certainly an ambitious target. It was also vital that these campaigns were technically solid: with hundreds of thousands of daily visitors, the company couldn’t afford to compromise on app performance. 

Coop chose Playable to help deliver its goals. With pre-built game concepts, customized templates and a super-easy editor tool, the gamification platform contained precisely what Coop needed to manage its campaign production burden. Even for a campaign schedule as demanding as Coop’s, Playable enables everything to be done in-house and on-track.

Coop used Playable’s integration to seamlessly embed campaigns into its app. In a single place, customers can now pay for groceries, keep receipts, browse products and also interact with Coop-designed game campaigns.

The results

Coop’s game-based campaigns have helped to re-engage and achieve extra value from existing customer relationships. The strategy has brought lots of new customers on board, too. 

Standout successes include the team’s Advent Calendar campaign for December 2018. That month, 95,000 new users downloaded Coop’s app. A total of 700,000 people engaged with this Christmas-themed offering a total of 3.5 million times. These stats show that the game was a big draw for new and existing shoppers alike. People had multiple goes; all the while engaging with the brand in a fun, positive way. 

Looking across three years’ worth of campaigns, the company’s real-life results are even more impressive. Throughout 2018, people played games in their Coop app 10 million times and in 2020 that number reached almost 25 million. One of the retailer’s core aims is to drive footfall into stores, and in fact, driven in large part by targeted game campaigns, 1.1 million samples were picked up in-store in 2020. It’s a prime example of how retailers can use gamification to trigger specific behavior. 

The game module is now the second most used feature in the Coop app, with almost 13 million minutes spent on the various games. The high level of engagement has helped Coop increase customer loyalty, footfall and spending.

Thanks to Playable’s platform, Coop’s ambitious two-games-per-week target became a reality. It meant that the company had plenty of scope to play around with new ideas and roll them out. This has included tie-ins with FMCG brands to highlight their products: a further rich seam of game ideas to keep customers engaged, as well as an opportunity to strengthen relationships with commercial partners. 

The ability to execute regular and frequent games enables the company to deliver a consistent brand experience. The app has established itself as the go-to hub for all things Coop: and for customers, this also means a steady stream of fresh, rewarding games and chances to win. Coop nudges its customers through push notifications, and those customers can rely on the fact that they’re being pointed towards something worthy of their attention.