uxwithmelissa
XTRAthortful
SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE
In 2025, the business decided to introduce its first subscription product to improve retention, increase lifetime value, and create more predictable demand. I led discovery and UX end to end, working in a product trio with a Product Manager and engineering team. The subscription launched across web and native platforms, soft-launched in December 2025 and hard-launched in January 2026.
RESPONSIBILITIES
+ User research and analytics
+ Ideation workshops
+ A/B test and learn
+ Stakeholder review/sign off
+ Low and high fidelity Wireframes
+ Final delivery designs
+ Stakeholder reviews
TEAM STRUCTURE
+ Senior Product Manager
+ Front End Developer
+ E-commerce Manager
Delivery Milestone
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MVP for soft launch End of Dec
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Subscription service across all platforms
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Allow customers to purchase and review their order
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Renewal service for MVP 1.2
First 6 weeks outcomes
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11,000 sign ups in first 6 weeks of launch
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Largest RFM share of Top Tier purchaser's
Project Problem
The price of our card plus first class postage has gone up by £1.15 since 2022 (card +30p, postage +85p). Customers are aware of this and consistently talk about wanting better value from thortful. This needs to apply to every purchase; many customers do not have the time or effort to shop for 4 for £10 every time. We want to provide our customers with a consistently good-value experience that makes us more competitive against other e-commerce and and the high street, where we know the overall price is cheaper.
Project Problem
The price of our card plus first class postage has gone up by £1.15 since 2022 (card +30p, postage +85p). Customers are aware of this and consistently talk about wanting better value from thortful. This needs to apply to every purchase; many customers do not have the time or effort to shop for 4 for £10 every time. We want to provide our customers with a consistently good-value experience that makes us more competitive against other e-commerce and and the high street, where we know the overall price is cheaper.
Customer Problems
Customers want to shop online for convenience, but know they can get cheaper cards elsewhere e.g. supermarket.
Customers are seeking better value, with rising costs and lower spend considerations.
Customers want to be rewarded for buying with thortful
Customers are now narrowing down who they send a card to. £3.99 spend is reserved for close family and friends
Hypothesis - We believe that customers who buy multiple cards per year will choose a Thortful subscription if it offers immediate, tangible savings, because they want predictable value without having to reconsider price on every purchase.
DISCOVERY - RESEARCH
👤 Exploring value models
Rather than jumping straight to a single subscription idea, we tested five distinct value propositions, each solving the problem from a different angle. The goal wasn’t just to find what people liked, but what they:
Understood immediately, felt confident committing to and believed offered real, ongoing value.
Concept appeal For each concept, below is the tally of how many customers across the whole base (n=1138) answered "agree" or "strongly agree" to these questions:This offer is clear and easy to understandThis offer is appealingThis would offer good value for me personallyI would sign up for this offer
Insights
Loyalty Rewards emerged as the clear frontrunner
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65% of customers said they’d sign up, a ~10-point increase from the previous round
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Rated the easiest to understand (90%)
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The most appealing overall (79%)
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Ranked first by over a third of respondents — well ahead of any other option
Insight: Customers like the idea of pre-paying for value, but the upfront commitment introduces friction. This model works better as an enhancement, not the core proposition.
Pre-Pay Bundles showed growing appeal, but higher friction
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Sign-up intent rose to 46%, nudging it into second place
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Perceived value increased to 56%, driven by the “extra credit” framing
Insight: Customers like the idea of pre-paying for value, but the upfront commitment introduces friction. This model works better as an enhancement, not the core proposition.
Postage Subscription: clear, but emotionally unconvincing
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Best-in-class clarity (91%)
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Only 43% willing to sign up
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£9.99 often described as “just another subscription”
Insight: Postage is a known pain-point, but isolating it into its own subscription felt transactional rather than rewarding. Customers understood it — they just didn’t feel it was worth it.
Card Discount remained niche
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Appeal increased slightly to 42%
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Only 25% willing to sign up
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Feedback suggested 30% off wasn’t compelling enough at current prices
Insight: Pure discounts lacked emotional pull. Without a stronger trigger (e.g. further price rises), this felt like a tactical lever rather than a strategic solution.
Annual Card Subscription polarised customers
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87% clarity, but just 22% sign-up intent
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Strong love-it-or-leave-it pattern:
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15% ranked it first
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Nearly 50% ranked it last
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Insight: This model worked for a small, predictable-behaviour segment — but actively alienated everyone else. Not viable as a mass-market offering.
Defining the Problem statement
Customers want a consistently good-value experience at thortful that applies to every purchase, without needing to hunt for deals or change how they shop. Therefore based on research, we converged on Loyalty Rewards as the foundation for thortful’s first subscription service.
DEFINE
💭 How might we
Value & Perception
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How might we make customers feel like they are getting good value on every purchase, without them needing to hunt for deals or change how they shop?
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How might we help customers feel confident choosing thortful over cheaper alternatives, even for lower-priority recipients? Maintain their brand loyalty with us.
Loyalty & Reward
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How might we reward customers for buying with thortful in a way that leaves the customer feeling valued and well looked after for being loyal — rather than transactional?
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How might we design a loyalty mechanic that strengthens trust and long-term engagement, not short-term conversion and prevent churn of top tier customers further?
Simplicity & Clarity
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How might we create a value model that is immediately easy to understand, but continues to feel rewarding over time?
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How might we create a scalable value proposition that balances customer fairness with long-term commercial sustainability?
Commitment & Anxiety
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How might we offer subscription-based value without triggering fear of lock-in or “yet another subscription” fatigue?
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How might we make flexibility and control feel explicit at the moment of decision, not hidden behind reassurance copy?
Propisition summary
An annual subscription, similar to key competitors, which offers customers 30% off the price of cards year-round in return for an annual fee of £9.99. The subscription would encompass a number of different features, outlined below. In order to be competitive and support better value than our 4 for £10 offering, Subscribers will be given a 33% discount.
DELIVERY
🖊️ High level requirements
The must haves
Non-subscribers must be aware of the Subscription offer throughout the web and app journey (homepage, PLP, PDP etc)
We must be able to identify existing subscribers and clearly communicate to them the discounts/benefits available, without bombarding them with further subscription sign up messages
Subscribers must receive a discount on all A5 card types (standard, photocard and faceswap)
Customers must be able to clearly understand the discount they are getting at different stages of the journey - with PDP, basket and checkout flows being the most essential parts of this
Subscribers must be logged in to use the discount/benefits
The subscription must be auto-renewed at 12 months
Subscribers must be able to easily turn off auto-renew on either app or web
The subscription must be available to purchase and redeem on both App and Web
Customers must be able to use other basket/coupon discounts if they are better value than the subscription e.g. a free card
🎯 What does success look like?
Success measures
The financial modelling for this proposition is based on the idea that customers who opt in to the subscription will buy on average +1 card per year. We will also generate revenue from the subscription payment. We will therefore measure:
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Adoption rate / volume of sign ups (across different customer segments, with the highest adoption anticipated from customers who buy 4+ cards per year)
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Cards Per Customer (12 months) - driven from either higher frequency or CPT
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As a hygiene metrics, we’ll ensure that conversion and gift attach are not impacted by the addition of the subscription (either creating more friction in the journey / making non-subscribers feel they are getting poor value / encouraging lower gift attach
DELIVERY
📱Experience Design
Key Journeys
I mapped the full subscription lifecycle, including:
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Discovery (PDPs, basket, account entry points)
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Sign-up and payment
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Post-purchase confirmation and expectation setting
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Ongoing subscription management
This helped identify high-risk moments, particularly around eligibility, renewal understanding, and where users expected to manage their subscription. This also helped flag nuance behaviours in our current platform and design for edge case scenarios. There were 80+ screens in total that were mapped out.
Wire frame flow of non-subscriber journey
What were we optimising for?
In these wireframes my main focus was how to showcase the subscription across site, without detracting from customers primary reason for being on site - to buy a card.
What did we deliberately not do?
There were 3 core behaviours I did not want to include:
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Pushing the upsell to much it caused customers to drop put. The placements were strategic with the least amount of risk to customer and the business.
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Auto on - these felt like a cheap tactic and did not align with “valuing” customers.
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Offer cannabalism - we have a few very strong offers customers use regularly. How did we make sure which was the best offer and make sure customers didn’t feel like they were loosing out.
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How did research inform my decisions?
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The research indicated that clear price proposition was integral.
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Being able to opt out at any time, no long term lock in
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Must be simple and easy to either add or dismiss, must not block primary reason for being on site - buying a card
DELIVER
🎨 Final Design
After running all Senior Stakeholders through the wireframes, ensuring that the business was happy with the direction that have suggested it was then time for the UI/Branding.
Since this was an entirely new proposition to the business we felt it was only right to develop its own brand identity to make it distinguished from the core site.
Below is some of the high fidelity designs of 3 core touch points
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1. In basket Widget
Key elements:
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Easy to turn on and off subscription toggle with shown price, gives customers greater control as costs aren't hidden behind a pay wall.
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The value exchange is immediate and legible: “FREE card & postage today”
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Secondary benefit (“33% OFF for 12 months”) is layered beneath, reducing cognitive overload
Mitigating Behavioural risks:
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Reinforces value at checkout, and supports ongoing retention by continually surfacing the benefit.
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The design avoids forcing subscription into checkout flow. Instead, it behaves as an upgrade layer within the basket, protecting conversion integrity.
Account management
Key elements:
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Active state confirmation (“Your subscription is: Active”)
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Clear renewal date
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Cumulative savings message:
“You’ve saved £10.80 – Nice one!” - to help clearly show customers benefit of their subscription. Preventing subscription regret and forgotten value perception.
Mitigating Behavioural risks:
Reinforcing the benefits, to prevent customers quickly cancelling their subscription.
Clearly showing their payment method, so they can manage their payments easily.
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Pre-Basket Upsell
Key elements:
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Large logo to highlight this is a different proposition to thortful.
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Leading with benefits to the customer "Free card and postage today". Value exhange rather than just payment from the customer side.
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Clear pricing in CTA button, no sneaky hidden costs.
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Can easily learn more, before committing to purchasing
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Visually broken in to sections to help reduce cognitive load and help customers understand quickly what they are being upsold.
Mitigating Behavioural risks:
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Easy to close, keeps you in your journey. No excessive pop ups. Has a cool down period of 7 days if you close.
📈 Data insights
Since launch, XTRAthortful has reached 17,765 active subscribers, representing 14% of the 2026 target. Growth has been steady, with sign-ups significantly outpacing cancellations — indicating strong early retention and clear product-market fit.
Adoption Patterns:
The subscription is resonating most strongly with high-value customers:
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48.6% of subscribers are Top Tier Cardies
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23.9% are Cardies
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Over 72% of members come from already engaged, repeat-purchase segments
Penetration within these groups is particularly strong, with over half of Middle Weight Cardies subscribed. This validates the original hypothesis: a loyalty-led model would perform best among customers who already perceive value in thortful.
In contrast, adoption among early-lifecycle users (Single Purchasers, Trialists, Second Purchasers) remains low — with Single Purchasers showing no uptake. This suggests XTRAthortful is currently functioning as a retention amplifier, rather than an acquisition or habit-forming lever.
Retention Signal
Cancellations remain minimal relative to sign-ups, indicating that:
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Ongoing savings reinforcement is working
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The value proposition holds beyond the initial conversion
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Transparent cancellation design has not negatively impacted churn
