From Last Mile to Loyalty: Launching a Retention Program

Before moving into WMS, I led Product for Last Mile Delivery. One of the most rewarding initiatives was the end-to-end launch of a loyalty program built to increase customer retention and optimize fulfillment tiers through experimentation.

The challenge was familiar: delivery is emotional. A single late order can erase months of goodwill. We needed a program that rewarded loyalty while also shaping behavior — nudging customers toward fulfillment options that were both better for them and more efficient for the network.

We started with discovery. We mapped the post-purchase journey, ran conjoint studies on reward preferences, and built a business model that tied tier benefits to operational capacity. Then we launched small, measured everything, and iterated.

Three lessons stayed with me:

1. Incentives must align operations and experience. A free-expedited-shipping tier only works if the network can absorb the demand. We designed tiers that balanced customer delight with fulfillment economics.

1. Experimentation is a strategy. Every tier change, reward test, and communication variant went through a controlled experiment. Opinions were cheap; data was decisive.

1. Retention is a system, not a feature. Loyalty touches pricing, logistics, marketing, and customer service. Product's role is to connect those functions around a coherent customer promise.

The program improved retention and gave us a lever to smooth demand across our fulfillment network. It also reinforced a belief I still hold: the best product work happens at the intersection of customer value and operational reality.