FAIRE INTERNSHIP

Reducing retailer membership churn

CONTEXT

Faire is a wholesale marketplace that connects independent retailers with local brands

Insider is Faire's membership subscription program where retailers get free shipping with select brands.

Time

2 months

Team

Designer
Software Engineer
Data Scientist
Product Manager

THE PROBLEM

Annual Insider churn rate increased to 30%

70% retailers who cancel their membership also leave Faire. As part of a larger initiative to increase user retention, I led the redesign of the Insider cancellation flow, expecting to decrease monthly churn rate by 30%.

Retailers aren't understanding the value of Insider

In order to understand what has led retailers to cancel, I audited the entire Insider membership journey from start to end. There was little transparency in how much the retailer has saved. Retailers don't understand how they are saving financially with Insider.

The current cancellation flow is outdated. 90% of retailers entering the flow are cancelling.

The current copy and content doesn't convince retailers to keep their membership.
Pause
Benefits screen
.Cancellation form

HYPOTHESIS

If retailers understand the value of free shipping, they'll be less likely to churn

I chose to design separate cancellation flows for two retailer types, who have different experiences with Insider. Breaking even retailers are retailers whose Insider savings exceed their membership fees. Not breaking even retailers are retailers who haven't been saving enough.

User segment #1

"I'm cancelling because I don't understand that I'm saving on shipping fees with my brands.

Jane Doe

Breaking Even

User segment #2

"I'm cancelling because I'm not saving with Insider since I'm not ordering enough."

Adam Lao

Not Breaking Even

Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.

Profile name

CEO / Creative IT

BREAKING EVEN RETAILERS

How might retailers understand their membership savings?

We went far and wide with our explorations in helping retailers recognize their shipping savings.

VERSION 1

Shipping savings across brands

CHOSEN

Quantity of free shipping loss

After speaking with the data science team, we found that retailer's savings across brands were very granular and often disproportionate to the quantity of orders. Thus, I chose to visualize the quantity of loss because retailers cared more about the brands they’re losing free shipping,

Creating an algorithm that predicts valuable brands

Originally, I hypothesized retailers cared only about the brands they've ordered the most from. However after discussion, we found it was difficult to predict what brands the retailer wants to continue buying from due to external variables. So, we fine-tuned our algorithm to be exhaustive.

NOT BREAKING EVEN RETAILERS

Why might retailers stay with Insider, if they're not saving?

As this segment of retailers have placed little to no orders, I explored incentives to get them to stay with Insider, without utilizing their free shipping savings.

VERSION 1

Staying for special brand deals

CHOSEN

Staying for brands in their category

Ultimately, I decided to recommend this group of retailers high quality brands in their category because retailers think one-time order deals are insustainable.

NEW USER FLOWS

Pausing is crucial to retailers who expect lower order volume.

However from data, we found that pause rates were at an all-time low. I discovered that the pause UX was unconvincing and has poor copy.
What's going on here? Why should I pause?

I hypothesized retailers would be more likely to pause their membership if Faire first reminded them of their benefits.

Instead of presenting pause as a modal in the first step of the flow,  I moved it to the membership benefits screen.

VERSION 1

Presenting pause as one of many options

CHOSEN

Presenting pause as the best action

We were confident in our hypothesis that pause will be the main reason why retailers keep their membership. Therefore, I chose to present pause as the best action to take.

Introducing a recovery offer: Free Insider for a month

To get retailers to stay with Insider, the finance team introduced a recovery offer. After exploring numerous iterations, I landed on framing the recovery offer as a special offer for users to claim and get out of the cancellation funnel quickly.
BEFORE
AFTER
I chose to offer the deal near the end of the cancellation flow because that's the most financially sustainable to Faire.

MISSION SUCCESS

We shipped Phase 1 of this flow to 10,000+ retailers!

REFLECTIONS

Grateful for the journey! Here's what I learned....

Data doesn’t tell the entire story
We had more data than we could work with. But without qualitative research, we wouldn’t have understood the full picture of the problem.
Know what type of feedback to ask for
I worked with PM and engineers of all shapes; Some didn’t want to get into the nitty gritty details of design. I also worked with senior staff designers who knew almost nothing about the project. So knowing what feedback to ask for is valuable in getting useful and good feedback.

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