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Promo Optimization Tool

Role: Product Design Lead, Researcher, Content Writer

Organization: Loblaw Companies Ltd. (Retail)

Type of Project: B2B

Tool: Figma

Design System: IBM Carbon

Overview
 

The previous application aimed to expand the business by assisting the organization's merchants in crafting optimal promotional plans. This goal was accomplished through data-driven optimization of retail promotions using machine learning, coupled with a customizable user interface that facilitated actionable insights. The initiation of this new project by business stakeholders aimed to address capability gaps that existing tools could not fulfill.

Problem Statement
 

The existing process for planning and reviewing promotional prices was unclear for merchants, prompting extensive manual Excel work and a return to outdated methods. Additionally, the cluttered user interface hindered navigation, resulting in decreased tool usage and a significant drop in adoption rates, posing a substantial concern for the business.

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Goal
 

Provide a unified, streamlined workflow for managing promotions end-to-end in real time that gives users the right information and the right controls to plan, price, and measure effectively, all in one place.

What We Achieved
 

Over the four-month period following the release of the new version of the app, we achieved the following successful results:

  • Revenue raised by 15%

  • Adoption % (Number of unique users logging into the tool) increased to 70%

  • Stickiness% (Number of weekly active users / Total users *100) increased to 40%

  • Level of confidence in the new environment increased to 75%

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Research
 

Redesigning an existing app involves a comprehensive approach that typically includes several research methods to ensure a successful outcome. Here are some of the main research methods I used in this app redesign project:
 

  • User interviews
    I began by identifying a diverse range of merchants representing various retail industry segments. My goal was to include merchants with different levels of experience and expertise. Once the participants were identified, I formulated a series of questions tailored to the needs of their respective businesses. These questions were prioritized based on their relevance and importance for the user interviews. Each interview session lasted approximately 45 minutes and encompassed various stages including Introduction and Context Setting, Open-ended Questions, Probing and Clarification, Exploration of Concrete Examples and Anecdotes, Demonstration of Empathy and Validation, Opportunity Exploration, and finally, Closing and Appreciation.

     

  • Analytics Analysis
    I analyzed the existing app analytics data, which offered quantitative insights into user engagement, behavior patterns, feature usage, and user demographics. By studying metrics such as retention rates, bounce rates, and conversion rates, I identified areas for improvement and prioritized redesign efforts accordingly.

     

  • Discovery Workshop
    I conducted a discovery workshop with a representative from the business, as well as each team including QA, Data Science, Engineering, Product Design, Product Management, and Development. The purpose was to identify merchants' needs and pinpoint the gaps present in the application. During the workshop, we collaborated to gather insights, share perspectives, and collectively analyze the requirements of the merchants. This collaborative effort facilitated a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities for improvement.

User Persona
 

For this project, two user personas were defined: the Merchant and the Director of Merchandising.

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Embarking on the Ideation Journey
 

Based on the research findings and insights gathered during the discovery workshop, we formulated three primary screens designed to cater to the merchants' requirements. These screens were specifically crafted to enable merchants to seamlessly review ongoing campaigns, strategically plan future promotional prices, and obtain a comprehensive overview of campaign summaries.

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Overview Screen
 

In the Overview screen, merchants had access to a comprehensive view of their drafted, active, and completed campaigns, each accompanied by insightful data to facilitate future promotional pricing strategies. The inclusion of a timer icon, signaling the urgency of draft campaigns, garnered positive feedback from users who previously lacked clear visibility into expiring promotional offers within the app. Additionally, merchants could expand each campaign to access a detailed view by clicking on the expand icon.
The introduction of campaign progress and campaign forecast was met with enthusiastic approval from the merchants. This feature provided them with a comprehensive overview of their campaign performance, enabling them to compare campaigns based on their status (Drafting, Approval, Supply chain, In-store), select specific timeframes, and make necessary adjustments as needed.
The campaign forecast offered a clear depiction of their profit, expected sales, and actual sales, streamlining a process that was previously time-consuming when done manually. If necessary, they had the option to create a new campaign directly from the same screen and assess its performance based on revenue, margin, and tonnage.

Planning Screen
 

In the previous application, users were restricted from creating their own offers and campaigns; they were limited to accepting those provided by the team. However, with the introduction of the new Planning screen, users had the opportunity to review the top offers categorized by their division and simply drag and drop them into the current year, retaining all associated business rules and logic. This functionality aimed to significantly streamline their workflow and save valuable time.

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planning view
Campaign's Summary Screen
 

This view provided merchants with a comprehensive summary of their to-do list campaigns, team and division campaigns, and their corresponding performances. Within this view, merchants had the option to identify recently created campaigns and those nearing expiration, requiring immediate attention. Moreover, they could seamlessly transition to selecting campaigns for activation, reviewing settings, or initiating the approval process without navigating away from the current view. This functionality not only saved considerable time for merchants but also offered them a clear overview of their performance and pending tasks. Additionally, at the bottom of the screen, merchants could access additional visual metrics collected during interviews, including campaign status breakdown, campaign trends, top five categories, and their contribution to overall sales.

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Strategic Oversight
 

I developed a comprehensive design for the management and director view aimed at tracking campaigns and their performances, facilitating the identification of gaps, and enabling necessary edits. This design allowed users to seamlessly access crucial campaign details such as goals, timeframe, estimated forecast, revenue, and margin. Additionally, users could easily identify the campaign creator and communicate with them using the in-tool built communication feature. Furthermore, the design provided the option to hide campaigns from the merchant's view when necessary, ensuring efficient management and oversight of campaign activities.​

Director view
Empowering Innovation: A Journey Culminated
 

This project took about a year and included identifying opportunities, running workshops, designing, developing, and testing. I felt the timeline was strong for a project of this size. The team’s hard work paid off, it led to higher adoption, more revenue for the business, and, most importantly for me as the lead designer and researcher, happy users.​

© 2025 by Shadi Davarian. All Rights Reserved.

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