What does it take to join Empowery?

Empowery Cooperative Overview

The purpose of this overview is to give you context about what the Empowery Cooperative is and to make it easier for you to review our contracts so that you have an overview of the cooperative and how it works. This does not replace the reading of our agreements and bylaws.

The concept of a co-op is relatively simple, in our case it is a group of e-commerce businesses who are combining their efforts to buy better products and services and to share knowledge and experience to help everyone run better businesses. In the United States, there are over 40,000 different cooperatives. Almost every business type has at least one cooperative operating within its segment.

The management of the co-op is responsible for listening to its members and providing its members with services and products that will help them improve their business and profitability. Empowery has hired Duvall Coop Management, LLC. to be responsible for all day to day management and the finances of the cooperative.

It is the responsibility of the members to share their thoughts and needs and to support the efforts of the co-op by buying through the approved vendors whenever reasonably possible. In cooperatives, the members who work together are incredibly successful by leveraging their buying strength of the cooperative to make their own deals tend in time to not provide true value to its membership.

It is the expectation by the cooperative that its members will make their best efforts to support the suppliers of the cooperative when appropriate and to share with management competitive information to help make the cooperative stronger.

Not every type of supplier will be appropriate for every member. Certainly, members are not expected to support suppliers that provide services that the member does not need. It is the expectation that members will make their best efforts to responsibly pay attention to communication from the cooperative and to participate in one annual meeting.

Each member of the cooperative will have one vote regardless of the size of the cooperative member. Profits, however, are shared based on the number of dollars given the cash back (aka Rebate) each member earns. 

So, if one member earns $10 in gross cash back amount and another member earns $1,000 in gross cash back amount, the second member will receive 100 times the net cash back vs. the first member. Simply put, you earn cash back based on your individual support of the vetted supplier network.

When you are looking for new resources ask first - who does Empowery have in the directory who can help me?

Then ask the supplier - what's my Empowery deal? If they say they don't have one - keep shopping and encourage them to join Empowery as an aligned vendor to help sellers around the world.

To become a member you must apply, there are standards on which the board uses to determine who will be granted membership. The board has leeway, to make exceptions when it views it to be appropriate. 

JOIN NOW