Faire internship • Shipped 2024
Reducing retailer membership churn
Context
Faire is a two-sided wholesale marketplace that connects independent retailers with local brands.
Faire’s mission is to empower retailers to strengthen the unique character of local communities and businesses.
Timeline
Team
Designer (Me)
Engineers
Product manager
Data science
Constraint
Insider is a membership program where retailers get free shipping.
Retailers pay a monthly fee of $19.99 to stay subscribed to the program and gain these benefits. Faire provides free shipping coverage for brands based on shipping distance and also popularity in their category.
Problem
Retailers are canceling their membership because they don't understand the value of their membership.
Annual Insider members decreased by 10% in 2024.
Opportunity
Highlight financial value gained at key moments in the membership to reduce churn rates
My impact
I re-designed the cancellation flow, decreasing monthly churn rates by 8%.
As part of a larger initiative, I prioritized the cancellation flow because it was a high intent surface. My peer designers worked on earlier moments in the user journey.
Research
Through auditing all touch points, I saw there was a lack of visibility in value shown across the membership.
Low visibility of benefits applied to orders
Users don’t know when Insider benefits such as free shipping have been applied to their order.
Unclear number of Insider savings
Membership savings is hidden in the account settings page.
Going deeper, the current cancellation funnel has a 98% cancellation rate
I saw that there was large room for improvement in UX copy, content and visual design. Additionally, the user flow had poor timing. The pause option was presented as the first step, when retailers don’t even know why they should keep their membership.
Pause membership
Benefits
Cancellation form
Decision #1
Optimizing the flow for retention
Currently, the pause option initially appears too early in the cancellation process, making it feel abrupt. By moving it after the benefits screen, retailers are more informed about the membership and likely to consider pausing.
Additionally, retailers often have strong reasons for canceling, so it’s crucial to add value without creating unnecessary friction. We discussed adding a discount recovery offer to the cancellation flow to address the lack of financial benefits.
Before
After
Decision #2
Communicating benefits to breaking even retailers
I identified two segments of users: Breaking even retailers vs Not breaking even retailers. I chose to start designing for breaking even retailers because Faire had the most data points and potential to win them back as customers.
“I’m cancelling because I don’t understand that I’m saving with my brands.”
Emily’s Candles
Breaking Even Retailer
Initial design explorations
I explored two different ways to communicate retailer’s gained financial value in their Insider membership.
Iteration #1
Breaking down savings across top brands
Statistics don't communicate gained value.
Unclear messaging that retailers have saved a lot with the program.
Iteration #2
Loss aversion of free shipping with top brands
Strong value proposition.
Overview of free shipping brands.
Testing
I shared my designs explorations with the customer success team and discovered a core insight.
Insight
Retailers leave Insider because they struggle to find new brands that meet changing customer demand.
Retailers don't understand the scope of their free shipping coverage with brands.
Final designs
I pivoted to helping retailers visualize the quantity of free shipping brands inside their Insider membership.
I chose to display a grid of brands and tag them as top shops to emphasize quantity. I worked with product marketing to create statistics and copy for breaking even vs not breaking even retailers.
Case 1: Breaking Even Retailers
Case 2: Not Breaking Even Retailers
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.
Next up
Building a smart data import tool for scientists
Scispot (YC S21) internship • Shipped 2025