Grocery Giveaway
Role: Senior Product Designer @ Propel
Team: 1 PM, 4 Engineers, 1 Data Analyst, Customer Success Team
Timeline: Sep–Nov 2023
background
Propel (formerly Providers) is a free app used by 5 million+ low-income Americans on SNAP/food stamps. With over 300k 5-star reviews, the app has become the go-to for EBT balance checking.
Beyond this core user need, our team explored how we might serve other adjacent needs, while also satisfying the business’s mission and revenue goals. A recurring in-app giveaway to drive traffic to our EBT Grocery Hub (where users can spend their SNAP dollars) was one of many ideas.
hypothesis
By offering users the chance to win a fixed amount of money, we can generate enough engagement to return more in revenue than was spent. To do this, a user can spend $35 or more using their EBT card online (a transaction we can natively detect) and they’d be automatically entered to win a $250 Visa gift card.
User value
Our north star service to our users is simple: putting dollars in their pocket. Finding ways for people to earn and save is critical to our mission at Propel.
An opportunity to receive a cash reward on users’ biggest and most frequent need: groceries.
Business opportunity
Generating hype on an already high-intent surface, Grocery Hub, can increase engagement on our grocery campaigns there.
An opportunity for our advertising partners to improve their campaign performance.
outcomes
We ran a 1-month experiment and learned that this giveaway experience:
Increased CTR by 8.5%
Increased sessions by 2%
Increased checkouts for Instacart by 57% and Amazon by 129%
Increased annual revenue projections by $1.7m
From users:
It was a cool opportunity and I’m glad I got to explore ordering online! I wish there was a more confirmative way to make sure that I entered properly… Nonetheless, cool opportunity and wish Providers would do more giveaways! :”)
Really cool! More giveaway opportunities please! And maybe some fun interactive games or something would be awesome too!
getting there
I knew giveaways weren’t a novel concept. Although they’re everywhere on social or in spin-the-wheel modals of e-commerce sites, infusing the flow and messaging into our specific product and user base raised different constraints and considerations. We decided an in-app “takeover” of an existing high-intent surface was best to compare two user groups in the experiment.
usability testing
We surveyed our users directly to understand what gift card amounts resonated, their excitement level for a giveaway, etc. I then ran 4 rounds of unmoderated usability testing for our flow we were confident most users understood the giveaway process.
visual explorations
I explored several visual approaches to convey the action a user can take to reap a potential reward. Branding, naming, framing all played a big role in the final iterations. With feedback from the team, we decided to keep the MVP narrow and with less variables.
what's ahead
My team and I were surprised by the complexities of running an in-app giveaway – legal language and implications, verifying a user’s actions with their EBT transaction, etc. And with internet scams at an all-time-high, ongoing iterations beyond this experiment requires even more scrutiny, polish, and assurance of security.
We’re excited to leverage a broader toolkit for our users, business, and partners as we scale a recurring giveaway to all of our users.
Role: Senior Product Designer @ Propel
Team: 1 PM, 4 Engineers, 1 Data Analyst, Customer Success Team
Timeline: Sep–Nov 2023
background
Propel (formerly Providers) is a free app used by 5 million+ low-income Americans on SNAP/food stamps. With over 300k 5-star reviews, the app has become the go-to for EBT balance checking.
Beyond this core user need, our team explored how we might serve other adjacent needs, while also satisfying the business’s mission and revenue goals. A recurring in-app giveaway to drive traffic to our EBT Grocery Hub (where users can spend their SNAP dollars) was one of many ideas.
hypothesis
By offering users the chance to win a fixed amount of money, we can generate enough engagement to return more in revenue than was spent. To do this, a user can spend $35 or more using their EBT card online (a transaction we can natively detect) and they’d be automatically entered to win a $250 Visa gift card.
User value
Our north star service to our users is simple: putting dollars in their pocket. Finding ways for people to earn and save is critical to our mission at Propel.
An opportunity to receive a cash reward on users’ biggest and most frequent need: groceries.
Business opportunity
Generating hype on an already high-intent surface, Grocery Hub, can increase engagement on our grocery campaigns there.
An opportunity for our advertising partners to improve their campaign performance.
outcomes
We ran a 1-month experiment and learned that this giveaway experience:
Increased CTR by 8.5%
Increased sessions by 2%
Increased checkouts for Instacart by 57% and Amazon by 129%
Increased annual revenue projections by $1.7m
From users:
It was a cool opportunity and I’m glad I got to explore ordering online! I wish there was a more confirmative way to make sure that I entered properly… Nonetheless, cool opportunity and wish Providers would do more giveaways! :”)
Really cool! More giveaway opportunities please! And maybe some fun interactive games or something would be awesome too!
getting there
I knew giveaways weren’t a novel concept. Although they’re everywhere on social or in spin-the-wheel modals of e-commerce sites, infusing the flow and messaging into our specific product and user base raised different constraints and considerations. We decided an in-app “takeover” of an existing high-intent surface was best to compare two user groups in the experiment.
usability testing
We surveyed our users directly to understand what gift card amounts resonated, their excitement level for a giveaway, etc. I then ran 4 rounds of unmoderated usability testing for our flow we were confident most users understood the giveaway process.
visual explorations
I explored several visual approaches to convey the action a user can take to reap a potential reward. Branding, naming, framing all played a big role in the final iterations. With feedback from the team, we decided to keep the MVP narrow and with less variables.
what's ahead
My team and I were surprised by the complexities of running an in-app giveaway – legal language and implications, verifying a user’s actions with their EBT transaction, etc. And with internet scams at an all-time-high, ongoing iterations beyond this experiment requires even more scrutiny, polish, and assurance of security.
We’re excited to leverage a broader toolkit for our users, business, and partners as we scale a recurring giveaway to all of our users.
Role: Senior Product Designer @ Propel
Team: 1 PM, 4 Engineers, 1 Data Analyst, Customer Success Team
Timeline: Sep–Nov 2023
background
Propel (formerly Providers) is a free app used by 5 million+ low-income Americans on SNAP/food stamps. With over 300k 5-star reviews, the app has become the go-to for EBT balance checking.
Beyond this core user need, our team explored how we might serve other adjacent needs, while also satisfying the business’s mission and revenue goals. A recurring in-app giveaway to drive traffic to our EBT Grocery Hub (where users can spend their SNAP dollars) was one of many ideas.
hypothesis
By offering users the chance to win a fixed amount of money, we can generate enough engagement to return more in revenue than was spent. To do this, a user can spend $35 or more using their EBT card online (a transaction we can natively detect) and they’d be automatically entered to win a $250 Visa gift card.
User value
Our north star service to our users is simple: putting dollars in their pocket. Finding ways for people to earn and save is critical to our mission at Propel.
An opportunity to receive a cash reward on users’ biggest and most frequent need: groceries.
Business opportunity
Generating hype on an already high-intent surface, Grocery Hub, can increase engagement on our grocery campaigns there.
An opportunity for our advertising partners to improve their campaign performance.
outcomes
We ran a 1-month experiment and learned that this giveaway experience:
Increased CTR by 8.5%
Increased sessions by 2%
Increased checkouts for Instacart by 57% and Amazon by 129%
Increased annual revenue projections by $1.7m
From users:
It was a cool opportunity and I’m glad I got to explore ordering online! I wish there was a more confirmative way to make sure that I entered properly… Nonetheless, cool opportunity and wish Providers would do more giveaways! :”)
Really cool! More giveaway opportunities please! And maybe some fun interactive games or something would be awesome too!
getting there
I knew giveaways weren’t a novel concept. Although they’re everywhere on social or in spin-the-wheel modals of e-commerce sites, infusing the flow and messaging into our specific product and user base raised different constraints and considerations. We decided an in-app “takeover” of an existing high-intent surface was best to compare two user groups in the experiment.
usability testing
We surveyed our users directly to understand what gift card amounts resonated, their excitement level for a giveaway, etc. I then ran 4 rounds of unmoderated usability testing for our flow we were confident most users understood the giveaway process.
visual explorations
I explored several visual approaches to convey the action a user can take to reap a potential reward. Branding, naming, framing all played a big role in the final iterations. With feedback from the team, we decided to keep the MVP narrow and with less variables.
what's ahead
My team and I were surprised by the complexities of running an in-app giveaway – legal language and implications, verifying a user’s actions with their EBT transaction, etc. And with internet scams at an all-time-high, ongoing iterations beyond this experiment requires even more scrutiny, polish, and assurance of security.
We’re excited to leverage a broader toolkit for our users, business, and partners as we scale a recurring giveaway to all of our users.