Enable Shopify Brands
to personalise content
on e-commerce apps
Case Study at
Appbrew
Outcome
Workflow duration reduced from days to minutes
What Appbrew Does
The company makes mobile apps for D2C Brands using Shopify. Appbrew has built & currently running apps for 200+ D2C Brands.
Appbrew opens another sales channel for Brands using Shopify
Who are the Users
Appbrew targets Shopify Brands looking for another channel to improve revenue, retention, conversion etc.
inside a Shopify Brand
brand goals
more revenue & loyalty
brand identity & web parity
integration management
decision-making users
founders
brand owners
growth marketers
execution-only users
brand designers
shopify developers
What I worked on
My job was to understand the product priorities & problem space well enough from the user insights gathered by the team, to design the most effective workflow for Brands and their desired outcomes.
Team Members
Co-Founder (CTO)
Product Manager
Engineers
How the App connects to the Product
Every Brand on Shopify goes through an onboarding process to setup their App and go live, after which Brands manage their App directly on the Product – a web-based low-code app builder.
2 stages to build & manage apps
What's relevant for this project
The Design section on the Product is where users manage app content, which is when the need for personalisation arises.
What are Brands trying to achieve
They want to curate a shopping experience that's personalised by managing content on key pages of a shopping journey.
ways to personalise content
for select customers
discount for signing up
curations for loyal shoppers
discount on first order
for select locations
same day shipping
festive discounts
enable store locator
for select inventory
alert out of stock products
highlight no returns policy
upsell specific variants
for cart status
discount for high value
discount for bulk buyers
direct when empty
for select duration
limited-time discounts
schedule promos
seasonal campaigns
for select app versions
app update alert
device-related features
hide OS bugs
How it worked before design
Earlier, Brands created content on the product, and had to request custom development to define when that content is visible.
Custom dev was the norm, taking days to go live, while having limited control
What problems Brands were facing
PHASE I
How problems were addressed
The goal was to enable Brands to personalise content by setting rules and preview them on the Product directly like standard blocks.
PHASE II
How problems were addressed again
The next goal was to use AI to let Brands personalise with less cognitive load and enable complex rule combos.
With this setup AI personalisation can be added directly on the current setup.
What constraints exist
PHASE I
Access to Visibility Rules
A few blocks use it at a time, but any block could need it. Thus, visibility rules must be accessible everywhere & inform their status without grabbing too much attention.
Rule Management
The visibility button opens a modal for selecting & applying rules. All iterations optimise for the shortest learning curve for all users, as using visibility rules is new concept.
Rule Settings
Seven rulesets with unique controls were created over time, adapting to various known use cases as they were surfaced.
Preview States
Pages like Product, Cart & Account are where most content with visibility rules are found. This makes preview state for the entire page most relevant & effective.
PHASE II
Personalising with AI
LLMs allow for a key unlock for users as it reduces the need for context setting initially. Now anyone can ask, evaluate & set any rule that's supported.
PHASE I
What Changed
PHASE II
What Changed
What to Improve
Up Next
Higher visibility for the feature & its status, to eliminate initial support requests to find it.
Up Next
Integration with AI content editing and content-based suggestions.
Up Next
More comprehensive preview, accounting for states at a global level.