Discount Combinations
In spring of 2022, I joined the Core Merchandising at Shopify. I was brought on to lead UX for the newly created Promotions team, which would enable merchants to boost their offerings through sales, discounts and promotions. This was an area that was previously unsupported with dedicated resources.
At the time, Shopify merchants were frustrated by the inability to have multiple discounts on any order. Shopify tracked merchant feedback internally, and this was their top frustration.
Project Scope
Improved Discounts UI: The team was starting from an existing design where there were distinct discount methods — Automatic discounts and Code discounts. These discounts were defined by separate APIs and different UI. The project team had previously made the decision to build using the existing Discount APIs, rather than combine them into a single new API. But for design, we worked to simplify and create more consistency for those who were creating and managing discounts.
Discount Combinations: The team had to define how we would enable existing discount types to combine — both the back-end logic and the controls we would surface to merchants. We had to make sure that the discount settings were clear and understandable for merchants. We also had to design how the discount combinations would display in checkout to buyers so that it was clear how the promotions were applied.
Discounts Extensibility: Discounts was one of the first areas introducing Shopify Functions, which would enable partners to more easily develop custom discount apps. Previously, app development was fully DIY code using Shopify Scripts. Functions would provide building blocks and the ability to have an app interface that looks like a part of Shopify admin. So we had to create content that would help developers understand what we had built, release discount functions in beta and gather feedback.
Design Team
Ryan Frederick – Staff Product Designer
Kate O’Reilly – Senior Product Designer
Lindsay Farris – Senior Product Designer
Khalid Bhatti - Staff Content Designer
Kathy Downing - UX Manager
Challenges
The team underestimated the effort required to test discount combinations. As a new team we had to quickly identify what we came to call the “blast radius” for discounts. This included different versions of checkout, payment integrations, marketplace integrations, currency conversion, taxation, Shopify Point of Sale, Shopify mobile app, and Shop app. We had to ensure that calculations were accurate, discounts were visually applied, and that discount limitations worked as expected.
The initial release coincided with a realignment of team members. Key project members were overdue for “intermission” which is a one-month sabbatical, and would return to work on different teams. So new engineers faced a large amount of work to fix bugs and stabilize the discounts platform. I worked with my Product and Engineering management peers to define our team rituals, celebrate our wins and align on priorities for the team.
Post-Launch
As UX Manager, I worked with designers on other teams as they prioritized building upon our discounts work. For example, Marketplace partners like Google and Meta were eager to display discounts directly in their product. Shopify POS and Draft Orders weren’t yet supporting discount combinations. So I would help them understand the nuances of our work and review their designs where they overlapped with Promotions.
As Engineering was facing a large backlog of work, I worked with our Product Reseacher, Product Manager and Product Designers to refine a research plan to better understand the needs of enterprise merchants and promotional capabilities of competitors. Our design team identified the need to further expand upon Discount Combinations to satisfy the needs of merchants who wanted more flexibility.