Earning equitable rewards anywhere 🚀

Catch’s mission is to provide rewards that benefit both shoppers and merchants, and promote healthier relationships with debt. In 2024, we needed a way to dramatically expand the number of brands where our users could earn rewards. We created CatchPass, a virtual debit card that lets shoppers earn rewards anywhere, not just at integrated brands.

My role

User research, prototyping, usability testing, brand, UI design

Team

Product Design Lead (me), PM, Engineers

Timeline

2 months

Background

Catch started in 2021 as an online payment method.

Shoppers pay with Catch at checkout, using ACH or debit. Merchants save on credit card fees and reward shoppers with store credit, in hopes that they become increasingly loyal customers. Shoppers earn high rewards (usually 10% back), without the downsides of credit.

We had integrated with 70 merchants by 2024.

Network growth had been limited by the need for merchant integration.

Problem

Our network of brands just wasn't growing fast enough to offer frequent value to users.

Users

“

“I wish Catch was available at more places I shop.”

This was the number one piece of feedback we received from user interviews and surveys.

Merchants

“

“Integration requires resources we don’t have right now.”

With tightening budgets, merchants were hesitant to commit to integration.

Catch

“

“Growth and engagement are limited by our small-ish brand network.”

We had a chicken-and-egg problem, with engagement limiting growth, and vice versa.

Discovery

To help inform our direction, I recruited members of our target audience.

We wanted to learn about our audience’s payment and rewards landscape, and where Catch might fit in.

Catch users · 5 interviews

Highly engaged Catch users

✔️ 5+ Catch purchases in the last 3 months
✔️ Has shopped at 3+ brands
✔️ Has downloaded our app

Non-users · 13 interviews

Savvy Gen-Z and Millenial shoppers

✔️ Between ages of 23-32
✔️ Hadn’t heard of Catch
✔️ 3+ beauty/apparel purchases in the last month
✔️ Has used a method other than credit card

Here's what we learned:

Opening more cards is a no-go 🙅

Participants feel they get bombarded with credit and debit card offers. Providers like Venmo and Affirm already promote them heavily.

Users wanted to use Catch for “practical” purchases 🥦

Our current network features mostly trendy beauty & apparel brands. Because of that, many users associate Catch with "fun money" or guilty pleasures.

Apple Pay is everywhere 📱

Most participants mentioned loving the convenience of Apple Pay in store, and users got excited at the idea of connecting Catch.

Meet CatchPass

Balancing user feedback, business needs and a little imagination, we got to work on CatchPass.

A virtual debit card lets users earn anywhere, without opening a new account.

While users seemed averse to new credit or debit cards, they liked the idea of earning rewards in store. Our virtual debit card is a layer on top of your existing debit card that allows us to attribute purchases and grant rewards.

Flexible rewards can be redeemed at any partner.

Normally, Catch credit would be locked into a specific merchant. We needed to introduce a flexible reward type that users could earn out-of-network and then redeem at any partner brand.

Onboarding educates, and doesn’t intimidate.

In user testing, we found that seeing the card image in Apple Wallet was an “aha” moment that it could be used in stores. However, emphasizing the card too early made it feel like just another debit or credit card product.

Card focused ❌

We hypothesized that leading with the virtual card visual would help users understand that they could now use Catch in stores. In effect, it immediately made people think it was a debit or credit card.

Benefit focused ✅

We hypothesized that showing brick & mortar brands would communicate that Catch could be used in stores, without looking like a credit or debit promotion. This option offered much more clarity.

Collecting personal info was less sensitive than we expected.

Research participants didn't seem concerned about giving their personal details. However, we aimed to provide information on why we needed each input using the descriptions and tooltips.

Both CatchPass and Catch Cash offers needed to feel at home in our mobile app, but also distinct.

We reworked our app architecture to incorporate CatchPass and offers, which we purposely kept separate from our partner brands. We also used a primarily purple color scheme for everything related to CatchPass and Catch Cash, which felt cohesive but distinct from our usual pink-heavy UI.

Outcomes

In March 2024, we launched a beta to 400 Catch users. Here’s what we’re looking to learn.

How are beta users engaging with CatchPass?

It’s super early, but here’s what we’re tracking to understand whether this feature is intuitive and beneficial to users. Our team is setting up analytics so we can dive deeper into what’s working and what isn’t as we get more data.

55%

Beta users have activated CatchPass

34%

Have made 1+ purchases

66%

Have added CatchPass to Apple Pay

24%

Have made 2+ purchases

How will CatchPass affect overall engagement?

The bottom line for us as a business is whether CatchPass helps establish Catch as a product that shoppers find useful on a daily basis, rather than something they use once in a while only at 1-2 specific brands. Here’s what we’ll be looking for.