Efficient long-term study of the Glamour app
Earning points and chasing rewards: Glamour uses gamification to motivate users to use the app regularly
UX services
UX testing
Diary study
Recommendations
Gamification
We wanted to launch a loyalty program to make using our app more appealing throughout the year. Userlutions fully met our expectations during the system validation process: We wouldn’t have been able to analyze app usage over an extended period and communicate directly with test users on this scale on our own!
Customer
Kristin Mehner
Product Lead
Glamour Shopping
How do you motivate users to keep using an app?
This is how we supported Glamour with the introduction of a loyalty program
Glamour Shopping Week takes place twice a year. For Glamour readers, this means attractive discounts and special offers at many well-known stores, brands, and online shops. For several years now, they’ve been supported while shopping by an app designed to simplify their shopping trips—with a digital shopping card, a store locator, shopping lists, and much more.
The app is very popular during the shopping weeks. However, Condé Nast Germany also wants to offer users incentives to use the app regularly outside of the shopping weeks. The idea: a points system that rewards users with “Glam Points” for certain activities, which they can redeem for attractive rewards. They implemented it as an MVP in a prototype of the app.
Several questions arose during the planning phase:
- Will the new loyalty program be accepted by users? Do they enjoy collecting points in the long term?
- Do users understand the system right from the start?
- Do the Glam Points really motivate users to use the app in the long term?
- Where is the sweet spot of use, i.e. when is the system used neither too little nor too much? How is it compatible with business goals?
- Condé Nast came to us to find answers for these questions. To validate and optimize the loyalty program, we conducted a diary study that allowed us to monitor usage over a longer period of time.
Using a WhatsApp diary for app validation
We conducted a diary study with an initial usability test of the app prototype and a final interview.
The moderated usability testat the beginning of the project gave us a first impression of the usage behavior within the app.
The diary study lasted 3 weeks, during which the participants communicated with us via WhatsApp (either through text or voice messages, depending on their preference). Whenever they used the Glamour Shopping app, they were asked to tell us about their experience using it.
Why is WhatsApp an effective tool for this?
- Higher response rate: All users were familiar with the messaging app and used it regularly anyway, so the barrier to sending us regular updates was very low. In addition, no training on a new tool was necessary.
- Easy Follow-Up: We were able to proactively follow up at regular intervals, and an NPS survey was sent out once a week without participants having to keep track of an additional inbox.
- Realism: Since the participants use WhatsApp in their daily lives—and especially when on the go—communication through this app was significantly more realistic than through any other app. Positive impressions, in particular, tend to fade over time and should therefore be shared as soon as possible—which was easily done with WhatsApp.
- Send screenshots, audio recordings and videos: Sending screenshots or voice messages to clarify statements was also no problem.
Finally, the participants were able to take part in aninterviewto summarize the app, tell us what they liked and didn’t like, and share their opinion on the points system.
What makes this approach unique is that the app’s user experience was not assessed at a single point in time, as is the case with a usability test, but rather throughout the entire duration of use.
New goals keep users engaged
The most important findings of the diary study:
Earning GLAM Points is fun: Users earn points “on the side” as they play. Animations quickly make it clear which activities earn points.
Setting New Goals Through Gamification: The way the point system was structured at that time initially increased usage frequency, but after a few weeks, users lacked new incentives. It has become clear that new goals must be set for them on a regular basis to keep them engaged. This can be achieved through new gamification elements.
Communicating the benefits more effectively: At first, not all users understood how the rewards system worked, but the benefits became clear to them quickly as they used it.
More Attractive Rewards: The available rewards have not yet been appealing enough to users. However, we have gained insights into what types of rewards are particularly effective in motivating participation.
Users of the Glamour shopping app become avid point collectors
Thanks to the insights we gained from the diary study and our recommendations for incorporating more gamification into the app, Glamour was able to improve the first version of its loyalty program and launch it successfully.
Overall, the project has shown that users enjoy collecting points—they would even recommend the GLAM Points program to their friends and acquaintances.
The loyalty program has now been launched and is enjoying great popularity, not least because of its new gamification elements. Within just a few days, Glamour had already received over 13,000 registrations in the rewards program, and within a month, over 36,000 users were already earning GLAM Points. Thanks to our findings from the diary study and our recommendations for integrating more gamification into the app, Glamour was able to improve the first version of the loyalty program and launch it successfully.
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Birgit Bärnreuther
Head of Consulting
+49 30 / 544 870 24
(Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.)
Birgit Bärnreuther, Head of Consulting
+49 30 / 544 870 24
(Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.)