The Team
Christian Mtima: Senior UX Designer Apps
Geogia: Product Lead
Lou: Senior Product Manager
George: Senior Software Engineer
Ben: Senior Engineer
Challenge
Beauty Pie was losing momentum early in the member journey. A significant number of customers failed to convert from free or starter access into paid membership, while many new members who completed a first purchase did not return for a second. This early drop-off reduced long-term retention and limited customers’ understanding of the true value of membership.
Solution
Design and run a set of experiments across onboarding and post-purchase touchpoints to test what most effectively drives membership conversion and second purchase.
Hypotheses focused on clearer value messaging, improved product discovery, and incentives such as samples to reduce decision friction. Experiments spanned CRM, web, and app, allowing rapid validation before wider rollout.
Hypotheses focused on clearer value messaging, improved product discovery, and incentives such as samples to reduce decision friction. Experiments spanned CRM, web, and app, allowing rapid validation before wider rollout.
Results
The experiments established clear signals around which levers most strongly influence early behaviour.
Success was measured through changes in conversion to paid membership, second-purchase rates, and early engagement metrics. Learnings from these tests informed prioritisation decisions and shaped the roadmap for future optimisation.
Success was measured through changes in conversion to paid membership, second-purchase rates, and early engagement metrics. Learnings from these tests informed prioritisation decisions and shaped the roadmap for future optimisation.
Kick off workshop & Ideation
Low Fi Designs
Refined concepts
In the refined concepts phase, we reviewed most of the ideas with the engineering team to assess technical feasibility within the six-week sprint timeline. As a result, some concepts needed to be simplified to align with delivery constraints. We also had to address legal considerations, particularly around displaying potential customer savings. This meant moving away from highly personalised messaging to more generic statements, such as “you could save up to X within the first six months,” based on the data available from the free trial period.
Alongside this, we began exploring improvements to the cancellation journey, including the use of social proof and savings-based messaging to help reinforce the value proposition and test whether users could better recognise the benefits of staying subscribed.
Feedback & iterations
Second Shop Nudge concept
A change in business direction meant moving away from free trials, which reshaped the objective of this work. Instead of targeting trial users, the focus shifted to new members within their first six months who had only placed one order.
The goal was to encourage a second purchase by helping members clearly see the value of their membership so far, while also showing the potential savings they could unlock with another order.
Using customer data on average order behaviour and typical savings, I designed a progress based experience that visualised savings over time. This approach aimed to reduce uncertainty, reinforce the value of membership, and nudge members towards their next purchase in a transparent and motivating way.
Final initiatives
Savings-led onboarding
Highlighted member savings on first app sign-in to make the value of membership immediately clear
Used for both web-to-app members and free trial users to reinforce benefits early
Aimed to increase confidence by showing membership had already “paid back”
Paused due to legal and data constraints around accurate savings calculations, leading to exploration of simpler, non-monetary value messaging
One more shop nudge
Designed a “One more shop” nudge using a progress bar to visualise membership value and show members where they are in their savings journey.
Used average savings data from the first six months of membership to highlight what members typically save after one and two orders.
Framed savings as a form of light gamification to encourage first time members with one order to make a second purchase before cancelling.
Aimed to increase second order conversion by helping members understand the value of their membership and the potential savings if they continue shopping.
Social proof on PLP
Introduced real customer quotes and ratings on product listing pages to build confidence for free trial users
Aimed to encourage product exploration and second purchase, with emphasis on bestsellers
Designed as a low-effort, low-risk experiment, enabling delivery and testing within a 6-week cycle
Value & social proof at cancellation
Targeted the highest-traffic cancellation page to reinforce membership value before users committed to leaving
Tested defensible savings messaging (e.g. “members can save 4× in the first 6 months”) with supporting legal detail in an expandable accordion
Added customer review social proof to build reassurance and reduce immediate cancellation, generating learning for future, higher-impact retention tests
Desktop Live
Mobile Live
