How an ultimatum sparked innovation
Stamped
2025
Mobile & Web
Summary
Role
Design Lead
Duration
3 months
Team
Jamie (Product Manager), Vanessa (FE Developer), Ilinca (FE Lead), Paul (BE Developer)
A key merchant (monthly recurring revenue of $20k) wasn't seeing sufficient value from their loyalty program and threatened to switch to a competitor. After understanding where the frustration stemmed from, I designed a checkout widget that delivered enough value to retain the merchant, preventing a potential $240k annual revenue loss for Stamped. After implementation, the merchant experienced a 23% lift in reward redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
Problem
Stamped was at risk of losing an important merchant unless we were able to demonstrate the value of our loyalty program.
Monthly, our cross-functional team meets with high-MRR merchants. In March 2025, a key client expressed dissatisfaction with their loyalty program value and threatened to switch to a competitor at the end of Q2. Losing this merchant would have a significant impact on Stamped's bottom line.
Gathering Context
Further discussions revealed frustration with the application of rewards.
Customers complained about rewards not automatically applying at checkout, resulting in unexpected higher costs. The current launcher doesn't support automatic reward application, forcing customers to manually copy codes after redemption, which isn't intuitive whatsoever. See example below.
Ideation
A range of solutions were considered but the checkout widget was the clear favourite.
Before ideating, I set constraints: the solution had to be simple enough to build within a month allowing time for data collection and iteration, and scalable across merchants regardless of MRR, avoiding a one-off fix.
Given the constraints, our team explored a few ideas:
Fix the launcher (on-site widget): Would benefit all merchants but simply was not feasible within the timeline due to outdated code
Trigger an email on redemption: Too much friction (high interaction cost) requiring customers to leave the site to copy codes, ultimately recreating the same problem
Design a widget for the checkout page: Displays rewards at the point of highest motivation and allows one-click application
Solution
One week and multiple iterations later, the merchant gave us the green light to begin development.
The initial MVP of the checkout widget prioritized ‘ready-to-use’ rewards since they required the least friction to apply. We quickly learned that not all customers had rewards that were readily applicable. For customers without any redeemed rewards, we added an ‘Available’ category which would become the default view so they could browse options instead of seeing an empty widget.
Outcomes
By surfacing rewards at the right moment, the merchant saw a 23% lift in redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
By the end of Q2, we saw significant results. By showing ‘ready-to-use’ rewards by default, customers were more likely to apply them. Once applied, the rewards encouraged shoppers to maximize their benefit by adding more items to their carts, increasing overall cart value.
The merchant was impressed by the speed of implementation and remains a Stamped customer. As of August 2025, the checkout widget was made available to all merchants.
Case Study Title
How an ultimatum sparked innovation
How an ultimatum sparked innovation
Stamped
May 1993
Mobile & Web
Summary
Role
Design Lead
Duration
3 months
Team
Jamie (Product Manager), Vanessa (FE Developer), Ilinca (FE Lead), Paul (BE Developer)
A key merchant (monthly recurring revenue of $20k) wasn't seeing sufficient value from their loyalty program and threatened to switch to a competitor. After understanding where the frustration stemmed from, I designed a checkout widget that delivered enough value to retain the merchant, preventing a potential $240k annual revenue loss for Stamped. After implementation, the merchant experienced a 23% lift in reward redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
Problem
Stamped was at risk of losing an important merchant unless we were able to demonstrate the value of our loyalty program.
Monthly, our cross-functional team meets with high-MRR merchants. In March 2025, a key client expressed dissatisfaction with their loyalty program value and threatened to switch to a competitor at the end of Q2. Losing this merchant would have a significant impact on Stamped's bottom line.
Gathering Context
Further discussions revealed frustration with the application of rewards.
Customers complained about rewards not automatically applying at checkout, resulting in unexpected higher costs. The current launcher doesn't support automatic reward application, forcing customers to manually copy codes after redemption, which isn't intuitive whatsoever. See example below.
Ideation
A range of solutions were considered but the checkout widget was the clear favourite.
Before ideating, I set constraints: the solution had to be simple enough to build within a month allowing time for data collection and iteration, and scalable across merchants regardless of MRR, avoiding a one-off fix.
Given the constraints, our team explored a few ideas:
Fix the launcher (on-site widget): Would benefit all merchants but simply was not feasible within the timeline due to outdated code
Trigger an email on redemption: Too much friction (high interaction cost) requiring customers to leave the site to copy codes, ultimately recreating the same problem
Design a widget for the checkout page: Displays rewards at the point of highest motivation and allows one-click application
Given the constraints, our team explored a few ideas:
Fix the launcher (on-site widget): Would benefit all merchants but simply was not feasible within the timeline due to outdated code
Trigger an email on redemption: Too much friction (high interaction cost) requiring customers to leave the site to copy codes, ultimately recreating the same problem
Design a widget for the checkout page: Displays rewards at the point of highest motivation and allows one-click application
Solution
One week and multiple iterations later, the merchant gave us the green light to begin development.
The initial MVP of the checkout widget prioritized ‘ready-to-use’ rewards since they required the least friction to apply. We quickly learned that not all customers had rewards that were readily applicable. For customers without any redeemed rewards, we added an ‘Available’ category which would become the default view so they could browse options instead of seeing an empty widget.
Outcomes
By surfacing rewards at the right moment, the merchant saw a 23% lift in redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
By the end of Q2, we saw significant results. By showing ‘ready-to-use’ rewards by default, customers were more likely to apply them. Once applied, the rewards encouraged shoppers to maximize their benefit by adding more items to their carts, increasing overall cart value.
The merchant was impressed by the speed of implementation and remains a Stamped customer. As of August 2025, the checkout widget was made available to all merchants.
Summary
Role
Design Lead
Duration
3 months
Team
Jamie (Product Manager), Vanessa (FE Developer), Ilinca (FE Lead), Paul (BE Developer)
A key merchant (monthly recurring revenue of $20k) wasn't seeing sufficient value from their loyalty program and threatened to switch to a competitor. After understanding where the frustration stemmed from, I designed a checkout widget that delivered enough value to retain the merchant, preventing a potential $240k annual revenue loss for Stamped. After implementation, the merchant experienced a 23% lift in reward redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
Problem
Stamped was at risk of losing an important merchant unless we were able to demonstrate the value of our loyalty program.
Monthly, our cross-functional team meets with high-MRR merchants. In March 2025, a key client expressed dissatisfaction with their loyalty program value and threatened to switch to a competitor at the end of Q2. Losing this merchant would have a significant impact on Stamped's bottom line.
Gathering Context
Further discussions revealed frustration with the application of rewards.
Customers complained about rewards not automatically applying at checkout, resulting in unexpected higher costs. The current launcher doesn't support automatic reward application, forcing customers to manually copy codes after redemption, which isn't intuitive whatsoever. See example below.
Ideation
A range of solutions were considered but the checkout widget was the clear favourite.
Before ideating, I set constraints: the solution had to be simple enough to build within a month allowing time for data collection and iteration, and scalable across merchants regardless of MRR, avoiding a one-off fix.
Given the constraints, our team explored a few ideas:
Fix the launcher (on-site widget): Would benefit all merchants but simply was not feasible within the timeline due to outdated code
Trigger an email on redemption: Too much friction (high interaction cost) requiring customers to leave the site to copy codes, ultimately recreating the same problem
Design a widget for the checkout page: Displays rewards at the point of highest motivation and allows one-click application
Given the constraints, our team explored a few ideas:
Fix the launcher (on-site widget): Would benefit all merchants but simply was not feasible within the timeline due to outdated code
Trigger an email on redemption: Too much friction (high interaction cost) requiring customers to leave the site to copy codes, ultimately recreating the same problem
Design a widget for the checkout page: Displays rewards at the point of highest motivation and allows one-click application
Solution
One week and multiple iterations later, the merchant gave us the green light to begin development.
The initial MVP of the checkout widget prioritized ‘ready-to-use’ rewards since they required the least friction to apply. We quickly learned that not all customers had rewards that were readily applicable. For customers without any redeemed rewards, we added an ‘Available’ category which would become the default view so they could browse options instead of seeing an empty widget.
Outcomes
By surfacing rewards at the right moment, the merchant saw a 23% lift in redemptions and a 12% increase in average order value.
By the end of Q2, we saw significant results. By showing ‘ready-to-use’ rewards by default, customers were more likely to apply them. Once applied, the rewards encouraged shoppers to maximize their benefit by adding more items to their carts, increasing overall cart value.
The merchant was impressed by the speed of implementation and remains a Stamped customer. As of August 2025, the checkout widget was made available to all merchants.