Creating a body of product content for a Shopify app
A Shopify app that rewards shoppers with cashback when they buy with friends and family was looking to build brand awareness before their relaunch. Here's how I helped them move forward.
The project
I joined a startup as the sole UX writer to help them revamp their user flows, UI microcopy, content and emails for merchants and shoppers.
Role
Content designer and copywriter
Language
US English
Tools
Figma, Microsoft Clarity
Timeline
3 months
The context
My client
An up-and-coming startup building a new cashback product and looking to get their messaging across to more brands and customers.
The audiences
- Shopify merchants who want to acquire more customers through word of mouth
- Customers who want to receive cashback when shopping with their loved ones
Research
After the initial brief, I started researching the audiences I’d be designing copy for.
On the merchant side, I profiled brands that were already using my client’s product, as well as new prospects that might be a good fit.
I collected information on their target market, brand personality, tone of voice, mission, offer and competitors.
On the customer side, I mined social media conversations, looking for shoppers who already use or might be interested in cashback products.
I took note of their frustrations, goals and language.
I also created a user persona based on this information.
Testing
After learning more about our users, it was time to test their experience navigating the product.
I tested how merchants are onboarded and use the dashboard, as well as how customers discover cashback rewards while shopping.
At each step, I made comments on the copy and design issues that were preventing more users from converting.
I also used Microsoft Clarity to watch anonymized video recordings and observe actual users in action.
Defining the deliverables
I shared my findings with the CEO, the CTO, the director of operations and the UX designers.
Together, we decided which core parts of the product needed to be redesigned and rewritten before the 2.0 launch.
On the customer side:
- a personalized store and onboarding flow
- onboarding emails and text messages
On the merchant side:
- the merchant dashboard
- onboarding emails
The merchant dashboard
This is the centralized hub, where merchants can manage their campaign metrics, keep track of their most active customers and monitor their most popular products.
All the information presented here needs to be easy to find and easy to interpret.
I helped sketch the first design, picking the key data points that merchants might want to see at a glance.
For the Settings and FAQ pages, I focused on plain product terminology and concise definitions that prioritize the benefits.
The voice is candid, pragmatic and uplifting.
This way, merchants can personalize the shopping experience for their cashback customers and resolve quick questions themselves.
Merchant emails
I worked with the director of operations to write a set of onboarding emails that would help merchants make the most of their dashboard.
The emails gradually build upon one another, to establish expertise and keep my client’s brand top of mind.
Each email leads with a benefit and then explains how to activate the corresponding feature.
The tone is informal, engaging and persuasive.
Personalized store
In parallel with the merchant-focused materials, the UX team and I worked on customer-facing copy and designs, too.
One of our biggest projects was fully redesigning the personalized store customers land on when shopping for cashback.
The main challenge consisted in telling users everything they need to know to confidently use a new product — without cluttering the screen.
I helped define the user flow and provided microcopy variations for each screen, aiming for brevity and clarity.
Customer communications
On top of accessing a personalized store, cashback customers will receive onboarding emails and text message reminders — if the merchant so wants.
The copy here needs to be short and to the point, especially when it comes to the text messages.
These communications are jargon-free, heavier on visual elements and playful to attract young, tech-savvy customers.
With all this in mind, I drew on the frustrations and goals uncovered at the conversation mining stage and linked them to the benefits provided by my client’s product.
The UX team and I went through 3 iteration sprints before nailing the right tone and content.
The impact
With fresh copy and a revamped brand identity, my client quickly onboarded new investors. They also saw an increase in their click-through and conversion rates.
While the core product is being tested on the audience, my client can focus on content marketing, PR and social media promotion.
How might you benefit from this approach?
- Design and test copy in-house, keeping full control of your brand voice
- Iterate faster with a content-first approach
- Draw valuable insights from user research and create relatable copy that converts
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