A Rewards App for "Better-for-You” Products

We helped Merryfield bring their vision for a clean label rewards app to life by providing product strategy consulting, UI/UX expertise, and an app delivery team.

Categories
Product Strategy
Product Management
UI/UX
Development

Client

A new kind of rewards app

Founded by a former healthcare private equity investor and a Whole Foods Market executive, Merryfield was on a mission to help consumers choose healthier foods and reward them for clean label shopping. Merryfield’s experienced leadership team had a strong vision, and they needed a partner who would help sharpen it and develop the UX and execution plan to bring the app concept to life. For the first phase of our partnership, Whitespectre’s expert product group teamed up with the organization to develop the design, strategy and roadmap to do just that.

Attracting premium brands

The Merryfield concept relied on having recognizable CPG brand partners on board for launch. In order to attract these well-known brands, the beta app needed to demonstrate it would showcase brands in a novel, engaging way while providing users with a highly rewarding experience (pun intended!). Whitespectre worked hand in hand with Merryfield’s CTO and VP of Product on the tech side and the wider Merryfield team overall to deliver a beautiful and compelling app that became a key part of the pitch. The result - attracting companies such as Applegate, Beyond Meat, and Califia Farms to join as founding brand members.

From beta to launch

After integrating with the necessary third parties, the team launched a two month beta phase. Following the beta, the collective group used the insights, user testing sessions, brand feedback, and a design sprint methodology to further refine the UX. While the app was originally intended to be a combination of a healthy products guide and rewards program, the beta uncovered that users needed simpler messaging at the start; specifically focusing first time users on how to get rewarded for shopping clean label brands, ahead of diving into Merryfield’s wealth of content on standards. With this key insight, we worked with Merryfield to streamline the UX and functionality and help users develop habit loops to bring them back to the app with every trip to the grocery store.

Finally! An app that offers rewards for things I actually want to buy for me and my family. I’m so impressed by how easy it is to earn points. I’ve been using this app for about a month and I absolutely love it"

- App Store User Review, June 17, 2020

The outcome

As an integrated partner across development and product, Whitespectre enabled Merryfield to bring their mission to users with the launch of the Merryfield Everyday Rewards iOS App in June, 2020 with 16 brands. We continue to work with Merryfield today as the company expands its user base and adds new brand partners each month.

In its launch-ready version, users can simply download the app, create an account, then discover clean label brands and earn rewards when they buy their products. Features include brand discovery and favoriting, opting into special offers, an easy shopping list view and smart notifications tied to shopping and recommended offers.

This was my first time building an app. This was my first time building anything. I couldn’t have found a better resource/partner than Whitespectre. I felt comfortable with them as people right away. They helped us avoid a lot of time wasting. And the level of integration between their team and ours was/is the thing most promise but few deliver. They were key on concepting, product strategy, UI/UX and had the technical skills to then make it happen.

- David Mayer, Founder & CEO