Case study · Glossier

Designing a loyalty system without compromising checkout

I led the service design for Glossier’s first membership program across retail and ecommerce, with special focus on the high-pressure moment at the register.

Role: Lead Product Designer (Contract)
Partners: Product · Engineering · Retail · Brand
Timeline: 2021–2022 · 5 months
Scope: iPad POS · Mobile + desktop web · Member store · Points · Account · Cart · Email

In one minute

The brief

Design Glossier’s first membership and loyalty program as one connected service. Make its riskiest moment—the invitation at an in-store register—feel calm, optional, and unmistakably on-brand.

The tension

Glossier had a cult following but no formal way to reward it, while competitors had invested in loyalty for years. Closing the gap created a revenue opportunity, but the register was a high-pressure shared-device moment. A pushy prompt, confused handoff, or forced account setup could slow the line and damage the trust the program was meant to deepen.

The growth opportunity lived inside a risky moment.

Membership adoption was only one side of success. The service also needed minimal impact on checkout time, high employee confidence, and an invitation that customers could decline without friction. The interaction had to work for multiple combinations of account status, membership status, and intent.

The signal that changed the work

The growth prompt was also an operational risk: a shared iPad, a waiting line, and several account states could turn a loyalty invitation into friction or pressure.

Let customers say yes, no, or later.

I modeled those states before designing screens. The resulting flow preserved four legitimate paths: join, learn more, create a Glossier account without joining, or skip. No option was given moral hierarchy, and enrollment never blocked checkout.

Decision 01Keep enrollment voluntary and never block checkout.

Decision 02Design explicit handoff moments for the employee and customer sharing one device.

Decision 03Let customers earn points now and finish password setup later.

Design the handoff, not just the interface.

I stepped into an initiative already in motion, built on its established brand and design system, and focused the team on flow clarity. I partnered closely with the PM and involved engineering early to reconcile the ideal journey with the technology. Mapping the physical choreography between employee and customer made handoffs, device ownership, and verbal explanation explicit parts of the product.

What changed because I was there

By mapping the employee-customer choreography, I changed the work from a sequence of screens into a service flow with explicit handoffs, ownership, and recovery paths.

Make every touchpoint feel like one service.

I connected iPad POS, ecommerce, the member store, points redemption, account, cart, and follow-up email into one service. Clear transition screens reduced handoff ambiguity, while deferred password creation let customers earn immediately and finish enrollment later.

The launch paused. The judgment still matters.

About five months into the work, Glossier restructured and paused the membership program before launch. I do not claim conversion or retention impact. I delivered a cross-channel service model, resolved the highest-risk checkout states, and left a pilot plan that balanced membership adoption with checkout time, employee confidence, and customer response.

Project before pauseAn unexpected restructuring paused the membership program before launch.

Decision frameworkBusiness goals, customer needs, and brand values guided the work.

Planned pilot validationAdoption, repeat engagement, checkout time, employee comfort, and customer response.

Looking back

“The biggest lesson was that loyalty could not live in one screen. I had to connect what happened at checkout, in a member’s account, and after a purchase so points felt easy to earn, understand, and use.”

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