A new cooperative that could help promote Resonate

I’m working on a new platform cooperative called “Coupons4Coops”. The idea was born when thinking about how cool it would be if I could give out “coop gift cards” to people, and they could use it in a number of different cooperatives.

Coupons4Coops is very simple:

  1. The user provides their PayPal email to Coupons4Coops to receive a $5 coupon code.

  2. They can use the coupon code once in any of the partner coops.

  3. When they make a purchase in any of the partner coop, they also provide the coupon code. Many online shops and others have a “Promotional Code” bar or something similar that can be used.

  4. The cooperative then notifies me via email that someone has used the coupon and sends me the code. I check whose coupon code it is, and send that person $5.

From the point of view of the cooperative, it’s very easy - they just add a “Promotional code” bar when users make their purchase and email me the code when its used. The cooperative doesn’t have to use PayPal or handle any money - the Coupons4Coops will simply send $5 via PayPal to the person.

From the point of view of the user it’s also very easy - just copy-paste the coupon code to a “promotional code” bar in the site.

I would love Resonate to be accept these coupons. I’ve been a long time member of Resonate, attended the first online AGM and have written half a dozen blog articles that mention Resonate. The only thing required from Resonates end would be to add a bar for a promotional code, and email me if someone uses the promotional the code. The image below shows what it would look like. I would imagine this would not require a lot of development, and if there is someone willing to do it, I’m happy to compensate them for the effort - would $50 be a fair compensation from adding this option? Who could be the people who would be able to implement this? I know a dozen people who I could get to join Resonate with these coupons :slight_smile: .

I have talked with @richjensen and attended a members meeting about this idea, it was okay’d. It wouldn’t cost Resonate anything (apart from the effort of adding the bar and emailing me when people use the coupon codes), but would help us get more members. I understand that the site is being improved and there will be a major upgrade that will be done in the next 6 - 8 months. However, would really hope that this (would imagine relatively simple) feature could be added already before that. As I said already, am happy to sponsor the developer who could add this feature.

That’s everything about the idea relevant to Resonate.

For those more interested about the Coupons4Coops, the value proposition of the site is that we will be collecting an email list of people who like to buy from coops. We will later allow cooperatives to promote their goods and services in the email list. For example, each month we could send one email that promotes two cooperatives. The cooperatives pay the Coupons4Coops for the promotion, and the money is used to issue more coupons - which means more people will sign up to the email list to receive the coupon. As more people join the email list, cooperatives are willing to pay more for the promotion, meaning we can issue more coupons, growing the email list even more, etc.

The site itself will be a cooperative owned by people who commit to buying one $5 coupon each month. They can choose who to give the coupon, or they can donate it to a democratically managed fund that distributes the coupons according to the will of the members. For example, they can be used as rewards for people who contribute to open source cooperative software projects (like Resonate :wink: ).

At the beginning, I will be personally funding $5000 worth of these coupons - meaning I will be able to reimburse 1000 coupons each worth 5$.

We will also be using these coupons to recruit more people to Members4Cooperation email list - but that’s another story :slight_smile: .

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Such an exciting offer! I know the devs have been looking at this. Thank you!

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Just to make clear - Resonate would not have to accept PayPal or validate the coupon. From Resonates perspective, they would simply charge the person for propping up their listening credits as usual, but allow them to use a coupon code.

Resonate would send me the coupon code, I will validate it, and send the person $5. So it would be very simple from Resonates perspective.

Later we could make it so that the coupon code automatically reduces the price (so instead of charging the full price and getting $5 from me, the person would pay $5 less). However, we should start with the simplest possible way.

Let me know if there are interested developers who would be willing to do this, and if $50 isn’t a fair price for developing the simplest possible way to accept the coupon code, I can pay more.

I am VERY into the idea of cross promotions with the co-op world; it maybe the key to our long-term survival in fact.

From an engineering perspective, the instant deduction in the cart is much easier to achieve than any scenario where we’re passing any kind of customer data around.

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Thanks Peter!

I obviously am doing a terrible job at explaining the idea :smiley:, forgive me!

There is no need to pass any customer data around - just send Coupons4Coops the coupon code that has been used.

To receive the coupon code, the person must have provided Coupons4Coops with their PayPal email.

Once C4C receives an email from Resonate saying “this coupon code has been used”, we will check what PayPal email its connected to, and send that address $5.

So it’s simpler than automatic deduction, and does not require passing any customer information around, just an email to me saying “we have received this coupon code”. The email doesn’t need to include any other information - no names, bank accounts, how much the person has propped their credits, etc.

Surely there is no legal obstacles there?

Ahhh… ok, that makes sense. Only issue I see then is that we have two separate payments system for co-op members and another for streaming purchase. I can set this up for the memberships super fast, but to make the coupon good for streaming credits will be more complex. (Have asked for a time quote from one of the devs.) But if you’re ok making the promotion being strictly about co-op membership, then it could be implemented right away.