Grocery Outlet
Loyalty App Redesign + AI Recommendations
AI
Design Direction
Mobile UI
Retail
Design Systems
Commerce
Overview
Grocery Outlet's loyalty app functioned primarily as a digital coupon tool, offering little reason for customers to return between shopping trips. I led the redesign of the experience into a modern loyalty ecosystem that unified rewards, personalized recommendations, and member engagement while creating a scalable foundation for future AI-powered experiences.
Challenge
Customers had little incentive to engage with the app outside of clipping coupons. Loyalty features were fragmented, rewards lacked progression, and the experience failed to reinforce Grocery Outlet's unique in-store brand. The challenge was to create a product customers wanted to return to while establishing a flexible platform for personalization, rewards, and future loyalty features.
Approach
I led the redesign from product strategy through execution, restructuring the information architecture around a single loyalty destination where customers could manage rewards, discover deals, and track savings. To increase engagement beyond coupon clipping, I introduced AI-powered recommendation carousels that surfaced personalized products based on shopping behavior. Every interaction- from navigation to motion and visual language- was rebuilt to reflect Grocery Outlet's in-store personality while creating a scalable foundation for future loyalty tiers and gamification.
Prototyping was done in two stages. We used Claude linked to Figma via MCP to quickly mock up and iterate on interaction concepts using the GO Design System. From there, we used Claude Code to build functional, real coded pages, moving beyond static prototypes into working experiences engineering could review directly. We also ran in-person UX testing sessions with real users in a Grocery Outlet office setting, feeding the results into Claude to help direct which changes to prioritize and how to resolve conflicting feedback across test groups.
Outcome
The redesigned loyalty app delivers a cohesive, modern experience that unifies all member tools and reintroduces Grocery Outlet’s brand personality in the digital space. Customers now have a single, intuitive hub for rewards, deals, and personalized recommendations, making the experience both functional and fun.
By grounding the interface in a strong, consistent brand language, the app now feels like a true extension of the Grocery Outlet identity- confident, friendly, and easy to use. This alignment not only improved engagement but also strengthened brand recognition across digital and in-store touch-points.
Early usage patterns showed members returning to browse recommendations between shopping trips, a behavior the previous app did not support.
