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

Retailers are cancelling their Insider membership. Annual Insider churn rate has increased by 5%.

70% retailers who cancel their membership also leave Faire.

MY IMPACT

I led the re-design of the Insider cancellation flow, expecting to decrease churn rates by 8%.

I worked alongside a product manager, product marketer and data scientists to help retailers better understand the value of their Insider membership.

V1 shipped to 10,000 retailers

8% churn rate reduction

RESEARCH

Retailers aren't understanding and receiving value from 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 funnel doesn't persuade retailers to stay. Over 95% of retailers entering the current flow cancel.

The current funnel composes of three steps, all of which have close to a 100% skip rate. I saw that there was large room for improvement in UX copy, content and visual design
Pause
‍
🔴 98% Skipped
Benefits screen
‍
🔴 95% skipped
.Cancellation form
‍
🔴 100% skipped
I reviewed past user research recordings, platform analytics with the data science team. Together we found these data points about the churning retailers. I decided to map each statistic to the root cause/reason to guide my design decisions.

HYPOTHESIS

If retailers understand the value of their free shipping benefits in the cancellation flow, they'll be less likely to churn from Insider.

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.

Segment #1

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

Jane Doe

Breaking Even

Segment #2

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

Adam Lao

Not Breaking Even

CHALLENGE #1

How might we contextualize the free shipping benefits that breaking even retailers have gained from Insider?

I designed for breaking even and not breaking even retailers simultaneously. I hypothesized the retailers cared most about their "key brands", brands they've re-ordered the most from before. Thus, I explored different messaging strategies to help users understand their savings using data points, and their key brands.
VERSION #1
Breaking down savings across key brands
Displaying savings as a statistic is less engaging.
↓
VERSION #2
Using social proof to reinforce Insider saving benefits
Spelled out savings in text is more personal messaging.
‍
However, multiple data points dilutes the main point.
↓
CHOSEN
Loss aversion of Insider benefits
Displaying one savings statistic with key brands is most sticky to the users.

After sharing with the team, I received these two pieces of feedback.

INSIGHT #1

Keys brands are not a strong indicator of retailer's intent to re-order.

INSIGHT #2

Most savings are small, and are not a good enough reason for users to stay.

CONTENT DESIGN & LAYOUT

As it was difficult to predict what brands retailers continue to order from, I pivoted to using quantity of brands to contextualize membership value.

In addition, after much discussion, i decided to simplify the content layout to only include one singular savings metric. Multiple metrics diluted the cancellation flow's core messaging.
VERSION 1
Selectively showing brands + metrics
Multiple savings metrics competed against each other for user's attention.
VERSION 2
Large quantity of brands + one metric
Action buttons below the fold of the page add unecessary friction.
VERSION 3
Action button above + brands below
Moved the action buttons up for easy access. However, brands hidden are not visible in one view.
CHOSEN
Action buttons + brands side by side
This layout allows retailers to gain a holisitc view of their membership in one view, supporting their decision making.

After deciding on a content layout, I focused on exploring what hierarchy of brands should be displayed.

Following the retailer's ordering journey, I hypothesized retailers cared most about losing free shipping with brands that they've ordered from. Next, retailers would care about brands sitting in the cart, saved in their favorites. I put brands most popular last because retailers wouldn't have engaged with them.
I first explored displaying brands in order of most to least valuable brands, and contextualizing them by order amount. But, I recognized that churning retailers won't have a lot of orders with their brands. So instead, I chose to remove any affiliated context and frame the brands as "top and popular brands" in their category.

VERSION 1

Contextualizing brands

CHOSEN

Tagging brands as "Top Shop"

FINAL

With the main design decisions made, we tweaked and refined the nitty gritty details for both retailer segments.

Segment #1: Breaking Even Retailers.

Spelled out the number of total savings as a phrase to add more narrative.

Added the definition of what total savings meansfor full transparency and remove confusion.
Decided to left align and remove additional contexts for the brand tiles as this is not a discovery experience.

Segment #2:  Not Breaking Even Retailers

Replaced the metric with the number of brands needed to break even, making it clearer and more achievable for retailers.
Same as the Breaking Even Retailer group,

CHALLENGE #2

How might we make pausing more understandable to users?

Pausing is crucial to retailers who expect lower order volume in upcoming months. 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.

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 be after the benefits screen. I decided to make pause its own step because it is an important decision that requires the user's full attention.
VERSION 1
Presenting pause with other options at once
Make the best decision after seeing everything they're losing in their membership.
CHOSEN
Presenting pause as its own step
I hypothesized retailers would be more willing to pause if we provided all the context and details upfront.

FINAL

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. I chose to offer the deal near the end of the cancellation flow because that's more financially sustainable to Faire.
BEFORE
AFTER

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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