Making rewards feel worth redeeming
67% of CRED users had never redeemed a single coin. The rewards shelf existed — users just couldn't find value in it. I led the redesign that changed that.
0×
more reward exploration
0%
drop in support tickets
RoleLead Product Designer
Timeline8 weeks
Team2 designers · 1 researcher
⚡ challenge
A shelf full of rewards, but nobody browsing
CRED's reward catalogue had grown to 400+ partner offers. Yet internal data showed 67% of users had never redeemed — and those who had, redeemed once and never returned. The business was funding a rewards programme that wasn't creating loyalty.
My brief: understand why users weren't engaging with rewards and redesign the experience without increasing the marketing budget.
🔍 research
It wasn't a value problem. It was a discovery problem.
8 user interviews and a competitive audit of 5 reward programmes revealed a consistent pattern: users didn't know what they could get, and when they did find something relevant, they didn't trust their coins were “enough” to claim it.
“I have 8,000 coins but I have no idea what I can actually get with them. I just assume it's not enough for anything good.”
— User interview, 27, Bangalore
Key insight: users needed a personalised “what you can get right now” view — not a catalogue they had to browse.
💡 solution
Show users exactly what they can claim today
We replaced the catalogue grid with a personalised “unlockable now” shelf — surfacing the 3 highest-value rewards a user could claim with their current coin balance, zero browsing required.
BEFORE
All Rewards (412)
Sorted by: Featured
AFTER
Unlock with your 8,200 coins
Swiggy ₹200 off7,500 coins
Myntra ₹300 off8,000 coins
Claim now →
Left: original catalogue (412 items, no personalisation). Right: personalised “unlock now” shelf showing only what's reachable.
📈 impact
47% more users now redeem every month
0%
monthly active redeemers
Rolled out to 100% of users over 3 weeks. The “unlock now” shelf became one of CRED's highest-engagement surfaces within the first month.
🔭 what's next
Phase 2 explores predictive coin earning nudges — surfacing “earn X more coins to unlock Y” prompts at the bill payment moment. Early concept testing shows 71% of users find it motivating.