Project background
8% conversion rate
Our research shows that when users shop for eGift Cards, they expect a clear place to enter the recipient’s email. The legacy design did not support this, creating confusion.
The problem
Failed to meet users' basic needs
Research shows 53% of users buy gift cards for friends/family and want a field to enter the recipient's email for direct delivery.
This convenience is key for digital gift cards: instant delivery satisfies last-minute needs and reduces friction.
Research shows 53% of users buy gift cards for friends/family and want a field to enter the recipient's email for direct delivery.
This convenience is key for digital gift cards: instant delivery satisfies last-minute needs and reduces friction.
Objectives
User & business
Our research shows that users shopping for eGift Cards expect a clear, prominent place to enter the recipient's email for direct delivery. The legacy design lacks this support, leading to confusion and friction.
💁🏻♀️ User expectation (core)
Enable direct email delivery with recipient email entry.
🚧 Challenge
Balance fraud policies without compromising UX.
🧑🏼💼 Business objective
Increase conversion rate and close gaps with competitors.
🎯 Goal:
Launch an MVP to boost engagement & retention rates.
Outcome & result
Conversion more than doubled
Conversion went from 8% to 17.5% - more than 2x - recovering roughly 5M customers a year and closing nearly half the gap to the ~30% industry average.
Design process & approach
Key decisions and challenge in achieving product success
Competitor analysis to help the team understand the CX gap and indsutry standard
Problem
Auditing Amazon, Starbucks, and Target confirmed 8% was a Walmart problem, not a category one — all three offered recipient email delivery, custom values, and personal messages on the product page before purchase, and we offered none of them.
Solution
Help the team define 3 core features:
Recipient emails → Direct delivery to friends and family.
Customized value → Flexibility for value-driven users.
Personal messages → Heartfelt holiday gifting.
Dynamic email counter
Problem
Static "Up to 35 emails" messaging confused high-volume buyers (22% of users) when nearing purchase limits. The limit is dynamic ($500 cap divided by card value), so the fixed message provided no real-time visibility into remaining capacity—causing errors, confusion, and drop-offs in bulk/gifting flows—while the majority (69%) still had a smooth happy path.
Solution
I designed a real-time dynamic email counter that instantly updates next to the recipient field and calculates allowable recipients based on current cart value and denomination.
Outcome
The new dynamic email counter provides clear visibility and clarity when entering recipient emails, reduces friction at the limit, and makes error messages easier to understand.
Solution #1
Static title message
Solution #2
Email counter + static message
Solution #3
Dynamic email counter
Introduce a new design pattern to serve for all types of users
Problem
The standard "Add to Cart" pattern caused confusion and high friction during bulk purchases and gifting flows, especially when users needed to enter multiple recipient emails for direct delivery.
Challenge
Early testing showed low visibility of the new bulk/gifting features and high drop-off at the multi-recipient input step. The root cause was not poor design execution, but limitations in existing patterns and system constraints—making it difficult to serve both new and existing users seamlessly.
Solution
I introduced a new design pattern: a prominent "Continue" CTA replaces "Add to Cart." Clicking it opens a guided bottom sheet as a step-by-step flow for entering multiple recipient emails. This reduces confusion, provides clear guidance, creates an intuitive experience for all user types, and improves completion rates.
Outcome
In the latest testing, all participants showed learning curve due to the changed button behavior, but quickly understood and adopted the new experience without needing to explore the features extensively, demonstrating improved intuitiveness.
Before
"Add to cart"
After (v2.0)
“Continue” → “Recipient emails”
Existing design pattern causes UX conflicts and failed to meet eGift Card's use case.
Problem
The existing design pattern converts the primary button to a stepper after "Add to cart" is clicked, creating a UX conflict because gift card quantity is controlled by the number of recipient emails entered, not the stepper.
Challenge
Disabling the stepper behavior required customizing the primary button, which increased implementation effort and extended the project timeline.
Solution
Use a secondary pattern called "PAC page" that overlays the primary button, preventing user interaction with the stepper while avoiding any need for the engineering team to customize the button behavior.
Outcome:
The new solution reduced the engineering team's workload and level of effort while creating a business opportunity to upsell additional products.
Before
"Snackbar"
After (v2.0)
"PAC Page"
Outcome & result
Final design & hand-off
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