+21%
WAU increase
51%
1-week return rate
16.4%
CVR vs 10.8% (Control)
Challenge
Fewer than 30% of Carry1st Shop customers return for a second purchase
Data showed that while many users completed their first transaction, fewer than 30% came back to buy again within the same month.
Interviews revealed that most players made purchases only when their favorite mobile games launched new events or limited-time offers, causing Carry1st’s sales to depend heavily on external game cycles.
This created both a business challenge - low repeat purchase rate and overreliance on external triggers - and a user challenge - a lack of ongoing motivation to shop once those game events ended.
With engineering resources tied up and only ten days to act, we needed a non-dev, CRM-driven experiment to test whether personalized communication and variable rewards could increase second purchases and strengthen retention.
Now - How might we
Encourage users to make a second purchase within the first week using CRM channels like email, push, and in-app notifications - without requiring product development?
Build a sense of habit and reward around shopping itself, similar to how games use missions and achievements to keep players engaged?
The Story
Gamification
Video games are experts at retaining players, they keep users engaged through missions, milestones, and rewards that make progress feel rewarding.
7 out of 9 user interview participants
Mentioned that they make another purchase when there’s an event that rewards them for spending, validating the approach.
Iteration & Key Decisions
I initially designed the Retention Mission as a four-milestone journey, where users earned increasing rewards after each purchase - simulating game-like progression.
I iterated several visual directions using AI-assisted illustrations to make rewards feel more tangible and motivating.
Pivot: Simplifying the Mission
Midway through design, a data discrepancy issue surfaced: tracking multiple milestones in CleverTap would generate unreliable reward attribution. To keep data accurate and ensure a clean experiment, I simplified the design to a single milestone focused on the second purchase.
Tool limitation
Technical dependency
Limited dev capacity and tight timeline
Data dependency for reward validation
Resulting
A/B Testing
With CRM as our main channel, I partnered with the CRM team to create two cohorts:
Regular comms (no reward)
Retention Mission comms
B
A
B outperformed A by 52% relative lift in conversion rate.
The Retention Mission targeted first-time buyers, encouraging a second purchase. The CRM variant outperformed the control by 52% in conversion rate, driving a 21% increase in Weekly Active Users and lifting the one-week return rate from around 42% to 51%, demonstrating that behavioral rewards and personalized CRM flows can effectively boost short-term retention.