Driving growth at Firstleaf
Company
Firstleaf
Role
Product Designer
Year
2023 - 2024
An introduction to Firstleaf
Firstleaf is an e-commerce wine company that specializes in selecting and delivering personalized wine boxes to customers. We have a subscription-based business model.
Challenge: Growth bottlenecks across the funnel
Despite strong market demand, several issues hindered growth:
Drop-offs at key points in the new member acquisition flow, reducing conversions.
A flat pricing model limiting revenue and perceived wine quality.
Lack of post-purchase clarity, leading to cancellations.
Limited subscription flexibility, restricting customization and revenue.
Solution: Driving growth through 4 key initiatives
Through four key initiatives, we addressed critical drop-offs, introduced a more adaptable pricing model, and optimized the subscription experience.
✅ Key success metrics:
10% increase in checkout starts
18% increase in orders placed
16% of users upgraded to highest tier of membership
$500k in additional annual revenue (from add-ons feature)
8% improvement in subscription retention
Key initiative 1
Streamlining Firstleaf's path to purchase
The acquisition path at a high level involves users discovering us via a social media ad, organic search, or referrals, and then taking our wine quiz to find wines that match their tastes. Following this step, they review their results and proceed to checkout.
Problem area 1
50% drop-off on the results page
Problem: Lack of clarity in wine recommendations & poor mobile experience
Users struggled to understand how their quiz answers influenced wine recommendations and felt the provided information was insufficient. Additionally, the wine cards were not optimized for mobile, posing a major issue since 70% of orders come from mobile users.
Our process: Testing different content & layout options
After analyzing user behavior through drop-off rates, click data, and interaction patterns, I explored multiple design variations with different layouts and content structures. Through continuous user testing and iteration, we refined the experience until we arrived at the optimal solution.
Solution: Creating a new wine card layout with richer content
We redesigned the wine cards with a 1x1 layout, making images larger and adding clearer selection reasoning, tasting notes, and food pairings. Users can now click through to a product detail page for more information. After winning an A/B test, the new design was rolled out.
10% increase in checkout starts
Problem area 2
50% drop-off during checkout
Fragmented, outdated checkout created friction for users
Our checkout process varied in flow and UI depending on the entry point, such as a landing page versus the Firstleaf website. This inconsistency made the experience feel outdated, off-brand, and not fully mobile-optimized, reducing user trust.
Solution: Standardized, efficient & responsive checkout
I streamlined the checkout experience into a unified, efficient flow, making it easier to scale and improve. An express checkout section was added for quick, one-click payments, and the entire process was optimized for mobile to better serve the majority of users.
10% increase in conversions (order placed)
Adding one-click payments
To reduce friction for users hesitating to checkout, research suggested making the process faster and more efficient. With 70% of users on iPhones and the majority of orders placed on mobile, we added Apple Pay as a quick checkout method.
8% increase in orders placed
Key initiative 2
User problem: Couldn't distinguish wine quality, couldn't find premium wine options
Business problem: Flat pricing model was limited revenue
Firstleaf’s fixed pricing model offered all wines at $14 for members, providing a great deal but creating business challenges. The flat price restricted revenue growth, made it difficult for users to distinguish wine quality, and failed to attract those seeking premium options.
🏆 Won the 2023 Illumi award for our research & user-testing
The research and user-testing conducted to refine pricing options, tiered subscription models, content, and layout helped us win the Illumi Award (from UserTesting) for leveraging human-centric insights to design better products.
Final design: Membership tiers tailored to user needs
The final membership design offered flexibility, allowing users to choose a plan and wines that fit their needs and budget. Following the success of this project, we introduced a fourth pricing tier tailored for luxury wines.
16% of users upgraded to the highest tier
Key initiative 3
Expanding subscription flexibility to drive revenue growth
Challenge: Limited flexibility - users wanted more control over their wine selections
While customers enjoyed their subscription wine boxes, many wanted the flexibility to purchase their favorite wines separately in addition to their curated selection. However, the existing subscription model did not allow users to customize or add extra wines to their orders, limiting potential revenue and customer satisfaction.
Introducing "add-ons": More choices, more wines
We introduced the Add-ons feature, enabling users to order their favorite wines alongside their subscription boxes. This not only allowed them to reorder past favorites but also encouraged them to explore and purchase new wines from curated recommendations.
Feature generated $500k annually + improved customer satisfaction
Key initiative 4
Increasing awareness of subscription model + its flexibility
Challenge: Lack of awareness about subscription flexibility led to cancellations
Right after placing their introductory order, many users canceled their subscription. Through user interviews, we discovered that cancellations were driven by a lack of awareness about the subscription’s flexibility—users didn’t realize they could delay shipments, pause, or customize their plan to fit their needs.
Quick win: Using the order confirmation page to highlight flexibility options
To address this, we updated the order confirmation page to inform users about their subscription and highlight flexible options. With one-click access, they could adjust their frequency settings and wine preferences without leaving the page.
8% improvement in subscription retention
Long-term plan: Educate users at key touch-points, throughout the journey
As a long-term strategy, we aim to educate users at key touch-points throughout their journey - from emails and the landing page to checkout and beyond, to improve transparency and retention.
Future steps
We plan to further refine the user experience by improving the results page, creating a structured onboarding flow, and optimizing the journey from the landing page to checkout. Additionally, we aim to enhance wine recommendations using AI for a more personalized selection process.