Honey started as a browser extension that automatically applied coupons on merchant websites. • In 2019, PayPal acquired Honey. • In 2021, PayPal Honey launched a Cashback program, enabling users to earn points on partner retail websites and redeem them for cash balance or credit through PayPal. • In 2022, PayPal Honey introduced PayPal Rewards, a unified rewards program that allows users to spend points directly at checkout and manage their rewards on PayPal surfaces.
Honey has 18 million MAU and PayPal has 429 million MAU. PayPal's goal is to acquire Honey users by driving traffic from Honey to PayPal.
PayPal generates revenue by charging fees on payment transactions completed by merchants and consumers. In order to further integrate with the PayPal ecosystem and provide more value to users, PayPal Honey strategically shifted from offering coupons to a Cashback program. Our mission was to encourage selected users to redeem their rewards through PayPal. We hypothesized that this would in turn increase adoption of Cashback, which was a fairly new product at the time.
Hypothesis
UX Strategy
Honey's Cashback offers enable 1-click reward earning through online purchases, but many users are unaware of this value. Data indicated that 65% of users with rewards worth over $1 have never redeemed them. Our hypothesis was driving redemption would communicate the value of Cashback, increase adoption, and generate revenue through PayPal traffic and retail partnerships with Honey.
To the drawing board
UX Planning and Roadmap
We identified 2 major projects to increase cashback adoption. 1. Redemption campaign (on Honey extension surfaces) 2. Activity page redesign (on joinhoney.com)
Gutting and cleaning
Redemption campaign: Pre-PayPal Rewards: Promote redemption to PayPal cash balance or credit There was a singular entrypoint into the redemption flow with poor discoverability on the Honey website which has <5% of MAU than the extension. So, I identified key screens on the Honey extension and Honey website surfaces to add multiple and discoverable entrypoints to the redemption flow.
Design opportunities: Since the extension is a passive experience, it was important not to interrupt the user shopping journey or cannibalize Cashback 1-click activation traffic. So I identified 2 points to add redemption messaging 1. At checkout 2. Popover: When the user chooses to open the Honey extension for account information
1. Redemption Campaign
Goals: The PayPal absolute is to become the world’s leading commerce app, and translates to Honey as to make it a place where people start shopping. Pre redesign, the activity page housed the only entry point into Redemption flow, which had poor discoverability partly due to the previous product strategy. With the shift in direction for redemption, the activity page needed a redesign to improve clarity of earning and redeeming points, especially to PayPal. 1. Educate users about earnings 2. Drive redemption 3. Increase Cashback adoption from passive to active by building awareness about the value
Design opportunities: 1. Show cash back activity (earning and redemption history) 2. Provide a discoverable entrypoint to redemption flow 3. Show summarized lifetime activity
2. Activity design page
I also worked on a Brand refresh that included a UX-led cross-team effort to create a unified E2E commerce experience across the entire PayPal app. Phase 1 Goal: Announcing the PayPal Rewards program and seamlessly swapping out Honey logo for PayPal Honey logo across Honey platforms Phase 2 Goal: Converge PayPal and Honey surfaces into one design system Phase 3 Goal: Updating the Honey Visual Language to PP 3.0 Visual Language
Next steps include Post-PayPal Rewards: Promote linking Honey to PayPal so users can spend points directly at checkout Linking Honey to PayPal is a requirement to be able to redeem points through PayPal. The only option for unlinked users to redeem is through gift cards with 1000's of retail stores.
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