WORKSHOP
Let's look at the current returns gift card flow
Reducing Checkout Friction with Instant Store Credit
American Eagle issued millions in instant store credit after returns, but much of it went unused. The problem wasn’t redemption mechanics. It was timing.
Customers received credit by email as a gift card number and PIN outside the shopping experience. To use it, they had to find the email later and manually enter the code at checkout. Most customers simply forgot the credit existed. I worked with product and engineering to reframe the problem around visibility, turning a forgotten artifact into a checkout driver that recovered $800K in lost value and generated $1.6M in incremental revenue.
Overview
A visibility problem dressed up as a redemption problem.
After a return, American Eagle issued instant credit via email. A gift card number and PIN sent to an inbox, waiting to be remembered at the right moment. It usually wasn't.
UX partnered with product and engineering to explore a different approach. Not a platform overhaul. Not a new loyalty feature. Just getting credit in front of customers at the moment they were already shopping.
Business context
With $1M in instant credits being issued and only a fraction redeemed, the gap between issuance and redemption was real money leaving the table. A meaningful improvement in redemption was not a nice-to-have. It was the whole point.
The constraint was clear from the start: gift cards could not be applied in the shopping bag, could not be stored on an account, and could not be combined. Working within those limits turned out to be clarifying rather than limiting.
My role and contributions
Led UX design for shopping bag and checkout surfaces
Defined visibility and timing strategy with product
Ran prototype usability testing across two rounds
Partnered with engineering on feasibility within existing systems
Project context
Part of a broader initiative to improve instant credit redemption rates
Required alignment across product, engineering, marketing, and customer care
No changes made to the underlying gift card platform
Why this mattered to the business
Recovered otherwise lost revenue by increasing redemption of already-earned credits before expiration
Reduced checkout friction by surfacing and applying credits at the right moment, improving conversion
Strengthened the return-to-repurchase loop by making value visible, encouraging repeat buying behavior
Problem & Solution
From out-of-band artifact to in-flow value
The existing experience treated instant credit as something customers needed to track and remember on their own. Customers received credit by email as a gift card number and PIN outside the shopping experience. To use it, they had to find the email later and manually enter the code at checkout. Most customers simply forgot the credit existed.
The redesign treated it as something the product should surface automatically, at the right moment in the right context.
The problem
Credit issued in a place customers weren't looking
Gift card emails required customers to remember they had credit, find the email, locate the number and PIN, and manually enter it at checkout. Every step was a drop-off point.
The solution
Surface the credit where customers were already shopping.
Display available credit in the shopping bag with clear labeling. Enable one-tap application of up to three credits at checkout using familiar interaction patterns. No new platform. No account features. Just better timing.
