(openPR) - A national survey of 2,000 American adults found that a majority of Americans say they are more likely to buy products and services from a business if they know it's a cooperative.

It also found that three of four consumers believe co-ops have the best interests of consumers in mind, run their businesses in a trustworthy manner, and are committed to the highest quality service. Co-ops outscored investor-owned corporations on eight of ten positive business attributes.

"This survey demonstrates the tremendous advantage cooperatives have in the marketplace if they identify themselves as co-ops," said Paul Hazen, president and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association. "The coop-domain is a key tool in identifying your business as a co-op. Every time a consumer goes to a coop-domain, and every time they see a .coop-domain in marketing materials, they'll know that business is a co-op. And that translates into more business and more satisfied members."

The national survey found that more than two in three consumers say knowing a business is a co-op makes them more likely to patronize a food co-op, a credit union, and utility cooperatives, and buy food products from a farmer-owned cooperative.

Other market research demonstrates that the .coop address, in particular, is a net plus among Internet users regarding the likelihood that they'll visit, return to, and refer others to a .coop web site, trust information on that site, and buy products or services online.

Internet users also demonstrate greater trust in web sites that are known to be restricted for use only by credible and respected entities. For example, .edu and .gov, both restricted web addresses, scored highest on user trust. Meanwhile, less than half of users said they’re likely to trust information on web sites using domains associated primarily with for-profit businesses, such as .com, .net and .biz.

"Our own market research on web addresses, in tandem with the recent national consumer survey results on public attitudes toward cooperatives released yesterday, demonstrate that if consumers can identify co-ops through their web address, the advantages are significant," said Hazen.
Hans-Peter Oswald
www.domainregistry.de/coop-domain.html

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