The Channel Island's Cooperative appoint Vaiie as their strategic digital partner in multi-year deal.
As part of their modernisation and digitisation strategy, the Channel Islands Coop has appointed Vaiie as their digital partner to enhance their member sign-up process. This new system allows customers to sign up via their mobile device or desktop in store or remotely, access their share account and sign up for the recently launched Coop Mobile.
The Channel Islands Cooperative Society is one of the most trusted community organisations in the Channel Islands, serving thousands of members across Jersey and Guernsey through a network of 27 grocery stores and services. As part of its continued investment in modernising member services, the Co-op sought a secure and efficient way to digitally verify member identities, replacing manual processes with a faster, more convenient digital experience.
To support this initiative, the Coop partnered with Vaiie to implement Vaiie Identify™, enabling secure digital identity verification for new and existing members. The solution allows members to verify their identity quickly and safely using their mobile device, while ensuring the Coop maintains the highest standards of security, compliance, and data protection.
The results
Faster, More Secure Customer Journey
CICS customers can now sign up for membership remotely, from anywhere.
ID Verification and Secure Document Upload
Enhanced security measures for verifying identity, address, and uploading documents.
Compliance with Existing Member Rules
The system adheres to the specific regulations and requirements set by the CICS while integrating seamlessly with current systems.
Related solution
The full story
It was crucial for the Coop to establish a secure and efficient channel for onboarding new members in-store immediately, so they could benefit from additional savings through member pricing across all stores in Jersey and Guernsey. The initiative, first trailed in the Coop’s flagship Don Street store, proved an early success, validating the Group’s plan to roll it out Channel Island-wide.
"We chose Vaiie as our primary digital partner due to their collaborative approach, dedication and attention to detail. The Cooperative have embarked on a 5-year digitisation plan and we see the team at Vaiie as an integral part of that journey. The recent launch of our digital membership signup has been a resounding success with customers."
David Mcgrath Chief Marketing and Membership Officer The Channel Islands Cooperative Society Limited
With the whole process taking less than 4 minutes, customers can access member pricing in-store with their share numbers and new digital passes. With over 1,000 people successfully signing up in the first eight days, the initiative shows no sign of slowing down.
Previously, the sign-up process required an in-person meeting and manual checks, which could take up to four weeks to activate. The Coop sought a fast, secure, and user-friendly solution that complied with cooperative society regulations and seamlessly integrated with existing systems. This fully integrated system verifies identification, conducts liveness checks, securely uploads documents, and processes payments, ensuring a streamlined experience for creating verified members.
Compliance & security
As a regulated financial services business, the CICS needed advanced identity verification and KYC measures by using Integrated ID checks and secure document uploads.
“Launching our digital member journey has been a big leap forward for us as we move forward into 2025 and continue enhancing our member experience. Vaiie understood our requirements, both from a member experience and legal and regulatory perspective, allowing us to launch a modern digital platform that ensures we meet our obligations as a supervised financial services business whilst delivering a seamless onboarding experience.”
Paul Coundley Head of Risk The Channel Islands Co-operative Society Limited
Now, thanks to Vaiie’s secure, cloud-based platform:
Customers can join CICS in under 4 minutes, via mobile or desktop, at their convenience.
The system integrates Government level advanced ID verification, liveness checks, document upload, and secure payment, address verification and issues a digital card.
Real-time integration: The process automatically syncs member data with existing CICS systems for immediate access to member pricing, loyalty points, digital membership passes and maintains seamless back-end compliance.
Integration with digital wallet application on smartphones to allow members instant access to dynamic information covering member savings, dividend and their share number.
Significantly reduced onboarding time
Automatically sets up a digital membership card.
Accelerated membership growth - over 2,000 new sign-ups in Q4 of 2024 alone, contributing to a total of 3,378 new members in 2024, up from 1,674 in 2023 – an increase of 98%.
Customer Feedback
"The staff were helpful, but I didn’t even need to ask - it was that intuitive. Big improvement!"
"Super impressed. I’m not great with tech, but this was straightforward and quick."
"This is how all sign-ups should be done."
"It’s about time! So much easier than the old system. No forms, no waiting."
