Shopify App

Outcomes

Increased app reviews by +29%
‍‍In the Shopify app store, reviews are critical for an app's credibility and product. Driving more reviews was important for growing adoption.

Set up user recruitment process
‍I set up a system to recruit CEOs, Founders, Directors etc for user interviews and recruited 15 participants in a few months. They were invaluable.

Increased free trial users by +123%
‍One month after launching a new onboarding page, we increased the number of total stores who started a free trial of a beta feature by +123%.

For confidentiality, the actual values of metrics are omitted.

BACKGROUND

What is Rokt?

Rokt is an ecommerce technology company that runs ads and offers on the checkout pages of Ticketmaster, Uber, Domino’s and others. These ads are carefully selected so that they’re relevant to the customer.

Customers get ads after a purchase

On the confirmation page, every time a customer clicks on an ad, the website/app earns revenue from that advertiser.

That means every transaction is an opportunity to earn revenue from ads. On the biggest US retail stores, this can reach $300k+ in a single day.

PROBLEM

Very few Shopify stores use the app even though it’s free.

In 2022, the number of new stores that installed the app were VERY few – less than 5 new stores per month. Since the app’s launch in March 2020, the number of stores that install and leave a review remained low.

My Role

As the sole Product Designer on the app team, I was responsible for the research and design of the app.

The team included a Product Manager, Engineering Lead, and 4 Engineers.

I led this research project between Feb and Jul 2023, working with a Product Manager and receiving guidance from a UX Researcher.

App users were people who managed a Shopify store.
Business owners, marketing, product, operations, developers and more.

SOLUTION

Figure out what the problem was and where it occurred.

Challenging assumptions

In the past, our team sometimes jumped to conclusions without discovering the root of the problem around the low rate of installs. For example:

“We should build more features into the app to create more value for users”
“We need better marketing”
“We need to fix our onboarding”

After zooming out to look at the Shopify merchant's customer journey, we found there were many unknowns we needed clarity on.

Who were our users?
Who were the decision-makers?
How do stores find out about Rokt?
Why do stores decide to install?
Why do stores decide not to install?

Here was the discovery process.

Decide who to target

We targeted large stores with 10k+ orders per month because they offered the most revenue potential and benefited the most from our ads product.

Map out the funnel

Using the Pirate Metrics framework, we mapped out the lifecycle of our Shopify stores and defined how to measure each stage. E.g.

Acquisition = Installs per month
Activation = Enabling Rokt on the page
Retention = Uninstall rate

Identify problem areas

Our Sales team told us most prospects they met with hadn’t heard of Rokt. Once stores installed the app, users generally had no issues with set up. Retention was also fairly good.

The problem was low awareness (not many knew about us) and low acquisition (not many had a good reason to install Rokt).

Investigate problem areas

After talking to Sales, Marketing, our users (plus a trawl through our CRM), we found:

Stores typically worried about the basics first like shipping, marketing etc before generating more revenue per order
Businesses care a lot about their brand and were often against showing ads on their sites
Most stores were acquired from sales outreach or existing relationships, which was not scalable

Get reviews

Getting app reviews was crucial for two reasons:

They help Shopify users find the right apps to use
They indicate to Shopify which apps they should promote

Increasing app reviews was an important secondary goal alongside increasing installs.

OUTCOME

Some wins, some losses.

The Wins

Better marketing. We worked with Marketing to set up organic and paid search. This drove 2x traffic to the app page in the Shopify app store.
User recruitment system. We set up a system to recruit CEOs, Founders, Directors etc for user interviews, recruiting 15 participants in a few months. They were invaluable.
Increased app review by 29%.
Increased users for beta feature by 123%. Details below.

The Losses

Number of installs. The rate of installs remained flat. While a lot of answers were uncovered and good information was learned, installs still largely depended on the Sales team.
Org restructure. I was reallocated to another team and this project was deprioritised. Unfortunately I wasn't able to finish this project.

BACKGROUND

Post-purchase upsells in the Rokt app

A new feature was launched in Rokt's Shopify app in May 2023. This enabled Shopify stores to offer their customers a discounted item after they make a purchase, much like a cashier suggesting extra socks when you buy shoes in store.

After payment confirmation, customers see a discounted item before seeing the Confirmation Page.

PROBLEM

It was launched as a free trial, but had very few users.

Only 19 stores were using the feature 1 month post-launch.

The company and our team assumed this post-purchase upsell feature wasn't sophisticated or competitive enough, and made plans to develop it.

However, after talking to our users, we found the actual reasons were:

Poor onboarding. People didn’t know how the feature worked or how it would benefit them.
Unfamiliarity. Given the popularity of apps with a similar feature, we assumed Shopify users were familiar with post-purchase upsells. Not only were we wrong, but 75% of our largest stores weren’t using the function at all.

My Role

I worked with a Product Manager and one Engineer on design and content. With competing priorities, the project needed to be quick and scrappy.

After discovering the actual problem, designs were scoped and finalised within 2 weeks.

Unhelpful onboarding page. Users didn't know what the feature was or what it did.

SOLUTION

Redesign the onboarding page and write new copy.

Working with the Product Manager, we workshopped the content based on feedback from user interviews:

More information on how it works
Visual example of what a customer would see
Free trial terms - no lock-in payment method, cancel anytime

The goal was to increase the number of stores that activated a free trial of the feature.

Sketching the layout and workshopping content

After working through a few carousel and image options, we decided a simple gif was the best way to show the feature.

We defined success metrics by new and current stores who activated the free trial.

Shopify App

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