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Personalisation vision for the Cashrewards app

Details

2024

Research, Product strategy, Cross-functional strategic alignment, Concepting

Overview

I delivered a personalisation vision that defined how the Cashrewards app could evolve into a more tailored, member-centric platform. Informed by user behaviour, merchant needs and industry benchmarks, it outlined personalisation’s role in driving engagement and growth, and evolved into the app’s strategy roadmap, aligning stakeholders across Product, Marketing / Digital and Engineering around a shared direction.

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DISCOVERY

The problem 

In line with Cashrewards’ app-first strategy which focused on driving engagement, retention, and long-term stickiness within the app, I was tasked with envisioning how we could harness personalisation to deliver more relevant, member-centric experiences across the key shopping touchpoints on app. 

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Utilising the new app design system to ensure scalability and efficiency in development, I explored how personalisation could deepen member engagement, delivering concept mock-ups that both inspired cross-functional teams and acted as a strategic blueprint — several of which have already been implemented with strong results.

My work included:
 

  • App retrospective: analysing current app performance and identifying friction points.

  • Strategic direction: mapping out key challenges, opportunities and the organisational support required.

  • Vision concepts: creating conceptual mock-ups to illustrate future personalised experiences.

  • Roadmap approach: defining how we move from vision to delivery, and outlining what’s next.​​

DISCOVERY

Design process – analysing existing data

To shape a clear vision for personalisation, I began by reviewing existing insights and data to identify high-impact opportunities where tailored experiences could strengthen engagement, improve relevance, and better support member intent across the app journey. My goal was not only to uncover where personalisation could add value, but also to frame how it could align with Cashrewards’ broader app-first strategy.

Consulted Member Services (CX) team 

Gathered frontline perspectives on common member pain points, unmet needs and recurring questions to ensure the vision addressed both user frustrations and opportunities for delight.

Analysed Amplitude app data to identify friction points

Reviewed behavioural data to identify drop-off points, low-engagement areas, and underutilised features. This helped pinpoint where personalised interventions could reduce friction and guide members toward higher-value actions.

Reviewed previous app strategy user research

Synthesised existing user research and competitive benchmarking to avoid reinventing the wheel, while building on known member motivations and expectations around relevance and rewards.

By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, I was able to highlight the most impactful areas for personalisation and frame them in terms of both user value (making the experience easier, more rewarding, and more relevant) and business value (driving app stickiness, increasing redemption, and deepening member-merchant connections).

DISCOVERY

Identifying insights-backed opportunities 

I identified the following opportunities to direct directs design and product efforts toward areas with the highest potential impact. 

I facilitated a cross-functional alignment workshop to secured consensus across Product, Engineering and CX teams on the priority opportunities and strategic focus areas.

Low stickiness for new app users

30% drop-off rate between app download and sign-up. This could be due to poor cashback experiences due to lack of product education and transparency.

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Opportunity:  Improving guidance and product education clarity could increase retention.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Cashrewards currently lacks a deeply personalised app experience that maximises engagement.

How might we leverage personalisation to elevate the app, position it as the primary channel for members to engage and shop, and ultimately become Australia’s #1 cashback platform?

DISCOVERY

Identifying users and prioritising jobs to be done

To address the problem, I mapped our key user segments and defined the primary Jobs To Be Done across major shopping journeys. This exercise highlighted where personalisation could add the most value and laid the foundation for our app’s personalisation vision.

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Personalisation vision framework mapping user journeys to tailored messaging, experiences, and offers — moving from broad ‘1 to all’ communication at sign-up to highly targeted ‘1 to 1’ recommendations for engaged users.

IDEATION

Ideation across user journey and segmentation

In collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders and designers, I facilitated an ideation session to explore how personalisation could be applied across key product touchpoints and user segments. We then clustered the ideas and used dot-voting to prioritise options based on business impact and user value — aligning on the strongest opportunities to explore first.

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Mapping personalisation opportunities across the member journey — aligning messaging, experience, and offers to key Jobs To Be Done at each stage.

IDEATION

Collaborating with stakeholders to restructure content

The previous web-based design was overly long and inconsistent, making it difficult to track user interactions, and assumed all information had to be displayed upfront.

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I identified these usability and tracking issues, then led stakeholder alignment sessions to prioritise content hierarchy and readability. I facilitated discussions with Legal to streamline cashback details, restructured T&Cs for clarity and worked with the squad to group critical information so it was easier to find and act on.

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EDUCATION

Gamified onboarding

The problem

New members often churn after sign-up due to low product understanding, limited trust, and a lack of motivation to return — contributing to a steep drop-off before their second purchase.

Solution

Introduce a gamified onboarding flow that delivers personalised, bite-sized tasks (e.g. “activate a favourite store”, “make your first cashback purchase”) paired with tailored guidance and small rewards. This approach builds confidence, educates users on how to get value from Cashrewards and creates early momentum that drives repeat engagement.

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SUPPORT

AI chat

The problem

The Help Centre sits outside the core shopping experience, making support hard to find and often irrelevant in context — especially for new users navigating the app.

Solution

Introduce an AI-powered chat assistant (“Janine”) at key moments of uncertainty (e.g. on merchant pages), surfacing relevant help content and guidance in-context to reduce confusion, build trust, and support successful purchases.

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BROWSE AND DISCOVER

Reels

The problem

The current app experience doesn’t surface content in a way that encourages discovery, resulting in limited exposure to relevant offers and reduced engagement.

Solution

Introduce a swipe-based “Reels” interface that delivers personalised, bite-sized content — showcasing curated merchants, offers and themes based on user interests — to drive effortless exploration and deeper engagement.

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BROWSE AND DISCOVER

Curated collections

The problem

The current browse experience is constrained by static categories and disjointed campaign management, limiting offer discovery for members and reducing retail media potential.

Solution

Introduce a flexible “Collections” feature — manually or dynamically generated — that surfaces groups of offers tailored to member preferences or marketing themes. These personalised collections create a richer browse format that improves discovery, relevance and monetisation.

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BROWSE AND DISCOVER

Campaign takeovers

The problem

Major campaigns are currently under-leveraged in the app — constrained to small carousel placements that limit visibility and excitement.

Solution

Major campaigns are currently under-leveraged in the app — constrained to small carousel placements that limit visibility and excitement.

METRICS / RESULTS

Testing high-impact concepts through experiments

Several concepts have already been implemented and are showing strong early uplift in engagement and conversion.

Gamified Onboarding - A/B test

  • 22% uplift in completion of first cashback purchase among users exposed to onboarding tasks

  • 8% rise favouriting stores

Curated Collections 

  • 13% conversion to shop from Collection tiles

  • 3.4% of monthly active users engage with collections

Swipable Reels - A/B test

  • 40% conversion to shop from a merchant discovered on Swipable Reels

  • Users who interact with reels are 12% more likely to make a purchase in the same session

  • Average time spent in-app increased by 29 seconds 

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