UI / UX Design
Manufacturer Rewards Program
Skip the hassle of managing receipts. Link your accounts and keep all the rewards.
Industry :
E-commerce
Client :
Lowe's
Project Duration :
3 months
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
87%
87%
87%
Fewer inaccuracies
$37M
$37M
$37M
1st month tenders
30K+
30K+
30K+
Active users after release
Problem :
Lowe's Pro customers may love us for their day-to-day purchases, but the honest take is that they leave a lot of their large orders to national suppliers. The main reason often traces back to rewards retrieval — third-party suppliers offer them, and buying direct makes claiming them effortless.
It's not that Lowe's doesn't carry the same products, we often do. The unfortunate reality is that for most Pros, claiming rewards on those purchases just isn't worth the effort. Who wants to save physical receipts and mail them to a manufacturer — or call in to recite purchase details?
The easier path has traditionally been buying big orders direct from the manufacturer, where rewards are automatic. This cuts Lowe's out of the sale entirely. We only saw those customers for filler purchases: the extra 200 feet on a 3,000-foot job.
Something had to change. But the first attempt at a fix would reveal just how deep the problem really went.
Challenge :
A technical PM on the stores team had taken a first pass at a fix — adding a prompt at the Pro desk checkout where associates could log a customer's reward number. But the problem was immediate: it often wasn't the main account holder at checkout but a runner who had no clue what they were being asked, let alone had the number on hand.
Even when the right person was there, associates were just as lost. Mis-entered and bogus values piled up fast, and the PM had to go in by hand to reset them — potentially hundreds of entries a week, manually corrected, one by one. This was becoming an unsustainable burden, and it was only going to get worse.
The real fix had to take the whole thing out of the purchase flow entirely. A self-serve solution where users could enter their info at their convenience was key. A guiding mantra at Lowe's: don't mess with the purchase journey!
On top of all that, we had to make sure we were even speaking the same language as our customers. "Vendors" was our internal term, but Pros had their own vocabulary. A word exercise with actual customers pointed us toward "manufacturers" — much more aligned with our Pros' mental models.
Solution :
Say hello to simple. Say hello to the self-serve Manufacturer Rewards interface.
We paired our solution with the stores PM solution to design a self-serve experience built into the org settings page. Pros could link their manufacturer accounts directly — at home, at the store, or whenever it was convenient. The system would then spot-check the reward number format in the background, automatically validating it without requiring manual intervention from anyone on the team.
To handle the reality that not every number would validate instantly, we built in a one-month grace period. This gave Pros a reasonable window to sort out any discrepancies without losing out on rewards in the meantime.
And true to the guiding principle — we made sure the entry point surfaced as a reminder after purchase, not a prompt during it. Whether a Pro was at the register or checking out from home, the experience was designed to never slow down or risk the sale.
Summary :
The manufacturer rewards system turned out to be a win on every side. Suppliers got more visibility and sales through Lowe's. Pros got to keep meaningful rewards back in their pocket — regardless of where they completed their purchase. And Lowe's got to be the venue that made it all happen.
The solution worked for desktop and mobile (webview and native iOS/Android), so whether a Pro was at the jobsite or back at the office, they could manage their accounts on their own terms. And for the back office employee — the one coordinating purchases across a whole crew — having a self-serve system they could actually trust made all the difference.
With a growing list of participants in the Manufacturer Rewards program, Lowe's becomes the common throughput for more sales, not the blocker we once were.
More Projects
UI / UX Design
Manufacturer Rewards Program
Skip the hassle of managing receipts. Link your accounts and keep all the rewards.
Industry :
E-commerce
Client :
Lowe's
Project Duration :
3 months
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
87%
87%
87%
Fewer inaccuracies
$37M
$37M
$37M
1st month tenders
30K+
30K+
30K+
Active users after release
Problem :
Lowe's Pro customers may love us for their day-to-day purchases, but the honest take is that they leave a lot of their large orders to national suppliers. The main reason often traces back to rewards retrieval — third-party suppliers offer them, and buying direct makes claiming them effortless.
It's not that Lowe's doesn't carry the same products, we often do. The unfortunate reality is that for most Pros, claiming rewards on those purchases just isn't worth the effort. Who wants to save physical receipts and mail them to a manufacturer — or call in to recite purchase details?
The easier path has traditionally been buying big orders direct from the manufacturer, where rewards are automatic. This cuts Lowe's out of the sale entirely. We only saw those customers for filler purchases: the extra 200 feet on a 3,000-foot job.
Something had to change. But the first attempt at a fix would reveal just how deep the problem really went.
Challenge :
A technical PM on the stores team had taken a first pass at a fix — adding a prompt at the Pro desk checkout where associates could log a customer's reward number. But the problem was immediate: it often wasn't the main account holder at checkout but a runner who had no clue what they were being asked, let alone had the number on hand.
Even when the right person was there, associates were just as lost. Mis-entered and bogus values piled up fast, and the PM had to go in by hand to reset them — potentially hundreds of entries a week, manually corrected, one by one. This was becoming an unsustainable burden, and it was only going to get worse.
The real fix had to take the whole thing out of the purchase flow entirely. A self-serve solution where users could enter their info at their convenience was key. A guiding mantra at Lowe's: don't mess with the purchase journey!
On top of all that, we had to make sure we were even speaking the same language as our customers. "Vendors" was our internal term, but Pros had their own vocabulary. A word exercise with actual customers pointed us toward "manufacturers" — much more aligned with our Pros' mental models.
Solution :
Say hello to simple. Say hello to the self-serve Manufacturer Rewards interface.
We paired our solution with the stores PM solution to design a self-serve experience built into the org settings page. Pros could link their manufacturer accounts directly — at home, at the store, or whenever it was convenient. The system would then spot-check the reward number format in the background, automatically validating it without requiring manual intervention from anyone on the team.
To handle the reality that not every number would validate instantly, we built in a one-month grace period. This gave Pros a reasonable window to sort out any discrepancies without losing out on rewards in the meantime.
And true to the guiding principle — we made sure the entry point surfaced as a reminder after purchase, not a prompt during it. Whether a Pro was at the register or checking out from home, the experience was designed to never slow down or risk the sale.
Summary :
The manufacturer rewards system turned out to be a win on every side. Suppliers got more visibility and sales through Lowe's. Pros got to keep meaningful rewards back in their pocket — regardless of where they completed their purchase. And Lowe's got to be the venue that made it all happen.
The solution worked for desktop and mobile (webview and native iOS/Android), so whether a Pro was at the jobsite or back at the office, they could manage their accounts on their own terms. And for the back office employee — the one coordinating purchases across a whole crew — having a self-serve system they could actually trust made all the difference.
With a growing list of participants in the Manufacturer Rewards program, Lowe's becomes the common throughput for more sales, not the blocker we once were.
More Projects
UI / UX Design
Manufacturer Rewards Program
Skip the hassle of managing receipts. Link your accounts and keep all the rewards.
Industry :
E-commerce
Client :
Lowe's
Project Duration :
3 months
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
Disclaimer: Due to proprietary information, some of the details have been modified or obscured.
87%
87%
87%
Fewer inaccuracies
$37M
$37M
$37M
1st month tenders
30K+
30K+
30K+
Active users after release
Problem :
Lowe's Pro customers may love us for their day-to-day purchases, but the honest take is that they leave a lot of their large orders to national suppliers. The main reason often traces back to rewards retrieval — third-party suppliers offer them, and buying direct makes claiming them effortless.
It's not that Lowe's doesn't carry the same products, we often do. The unfortunate reality is that for most Pros, claiming rewards on those purchases just isn't worth the effort. Who wants to save physical receipts and mail them to a manufacturer — or call in to recite purchase details?
The easier path has traditionally been buying big orders direct from the manufacturer, where rewards are automatic. This cuts Lowe's out of the sale entirely. We only saw those customers for filler purchases: the extra 200 feet on a 3,000-foot job.
Something had to change. But the first attempt at a fix would reveal just how deep the problem really went.
Challenge :
A technical PM on the stores team had taken a first pass at a fix — adding a prompt at the Pro desk checkout where associates could log a customer's reward number. But the problem was immediate: it often wasn't the main account holder at checkout but a runner who had no clue what they were being asked, let alone had the number on hand.
Even when the right person was there, associates were just as lost. Mis-entered and bogus values piled up fast, and the PM had to go in by hand to reset them — potentially hundreds of entries a week, manually corrected, one by one. This was becoming an unsustainable burden, and it was only going to get worse.
The real fix had to take the whole thing out of the purchase flow entirely. A self-serve solution where users could enter their info at their convenience was key. A guiding mantra at Lowe's: don't mess with the purchase journey!
On top of all that, we had to make sure we were even speaking the same language as our customers. "Vendors" was our internal term, but Pros had their own vocabulary. A word exercise with actual customers pointed us toward "manufacturers" — much more aligned with our Pros' mental models.
Solution :
Say hello to simple. Say hello to the self-serve Manufacturer Rewards interface.
We paired our solution with the stores PM solution to design a self-serve experience built into the org settings page. Pros could link their manufacturer accounts directly — at home, at the store, or whenever it was convenient. The system would then spot-check the reward number format in the background, automatically validating it without requiring manual intervention from anyone on the team.
To handle the reality that not every number would validate instantly, we built in a one-month grace period. This gave Pros a reasonable window to sort out any discrepancies without losing out on rewards in the meantime.
And true to the guiding principle — we made sure the entry point surfaced as a reminder after purchase, not a prompt during it. Whether a Pro was at the register or checking out from home, the experience was designed to never slow down or risk the sale.
Summary :
The manufacturer rewards system turned out to be a win on every side. Suppliers got more visibility and sales through Lowe's. Pros got to keep meaningful rewards back in their pocket — regardless of where they completed their purchase. And Lowe's got to be the venue that made it all happen.
The solution worked for desktop and mobile (webview and native iOS/Android), so whether a Pro was at the jobsite or back at the office, they could manage their accounts on their own terms. And for the back office employee — the one coordinating purchases across a whole crew — having a self-serve system they could actually trust made all the difference.
With a growing list of participants in the Manufacturer Rewards program, Lowe's becomes the common throughput for more sales, not the blocker we once were.