Sales might increase during the holiday season. That's also the time of the year where all businesses reflect on their 2021 achievements, plan their next year's goals, and put new objectives.
The 0.3 percent increase in sales last month, which followed a 1.8 percent jump in spending in October, showed that consumer demand was strong even before Thanksgiving, which has long been considered the start of the holiday shopping season.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/15/business/inflation-retail-sales-stocks
Taking bold decisions such as completely changing a whole user experience is never easy, however, it is sometimes essential as it could result in significant UX/UI improvements. This is exactly what Gameball product team did in the December releases.
What’s new this month?
A Brand New Players Section
Seeing how the experience with players section was not exactly comfortable to look at or easy to navigate through, We have decided to completely revamp not only the look and feel of the players' tabs but the structure as well. Here are some of the changes that took place during the latest release:
1- Players Log: All Activities under One Tab
![Players-activity-log-new-player-tab](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6e4_2-New-Tab_-Players-Activity-Log-1024x357.png)
When going to the players section, you would see multiple tabs on top; each tab had different functions and served other objectives. To see the players' achievements like program completions, points rewards, badges, and so on, you had to visit the "Program Achievement" tab. If you wanted to see information about the players' points, redemption, and expiry you had to go to the "Points Transaction" tab.
Knowing how so many tabs could be confusing and simply unnecessary. We have decided to remove both these tabs and create an entirely different tab that serves multiple objectives and includes all the data you need to know about the players' activity, whether that is an achievement they made or a point transaction. To sum this up, "Players Activity log" is a new tab that unifies the functions of the "Program Achievement" tab and "Points Transaction" tab.
Here are some examples of the information you'll find at the "Player Activity Log":
- Challenge completion and points reward
- Level upgrades and downgrades, and migrations
- Points redemption, refund, and expiry
- Cashback rewards and cancellations
- Friend referrals and referral rewards
- Manual balance adjustments
- The points earned or deducted upon any of the previous activities
- The date and timing of each activity
You can also filter the list based on any of the activities and you can extract the full list or the filtered list. Check out the new Players Log.
2- Player Profile Info Boost
![Player-profile-overview-revamp](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6d0_4-Player-Profile-Revamped-1024x357.png)
While the players section showed the all-in-all status of all players you have engaged on your loyalty program. If you want to see detailed information about a specific player, you need to visit their profile. The old profile structure showed limited data about your player, and the profile's data wasn't well organized. The new player profile now shows essential information to help you make better decisions and segmentations like the referral URL, location, player UTM history, etc.
Here is a list of the enhancements applied to the player profile:
- Player event log tab: Access the player activity history since the day they joined your loyalty program.
- Referral history: Check each player's referral URL, if the player joined your platform through a referral link, and trach their successful friend referrals.
- Events section: Track the player's actions and behavior on your platform.
- New player attributes: See more information about your players like their location, phone number, etc.
3- Displaying Error Type with CSV File Upload
![error-type-info-upon-CSV-file-upload](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6cb_3-csv-error-info-1024x357.png)
Manually migrating players or updating some of their information like the level they're on, their email or any of their personal data requires that you upload a CSV file to our system with the altered information. When a CSV upload failed, you had to guess what the problem or error was and then repeat the file upload process again.
Now, if an error stopped you from a successful CSV file upload, you will see the error type and the reason why the uploading process was unsuccessful so you can avoid repeating the same mistake on your new attempt.
4- Player Section New Look
![Player-section-enhancements-Gameball](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6e8_1-Player-Tab-UI-Enhancement-1024x357.png)
With understanding the struggle of not seeing enough information about the players' activity and status on the main player tab, Gameball has decided to change the user interface of this section. Now, when navigating to that part of the dashboard, you will have the same feeling you get when you're at any other part of the dashboard, and you won't find it complicated or confusing looking at any of the player's data. See the new Players Main Tab yourself.
Coupon Experience Enhanced
To increase the usage of the points collected by the players and the usage of the created coupons, we applied some tweaks that would help increase the ROI of the rewarding program.
If the players often forget to use the points they have and redeem them in the form of coupons or create coupons and forget to apply them while completing a purchase. When these points and coupons expire, the whole reward system fails as it doesn't serve its purpose. This is why Gameball decided to make significant changes in the process of coupon creation and applying. Here are the changes.
1- Applying Coupons Automatically through the Widget
![Applying-Coupon-through-widget](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6db_5-Applying-Coupons-through-the-Widget-1024x357.png)
Understanding where the main problem comes from, the players no longer have to remind themselves to go back to the redemption tab in the widget and copy the coupon code then past it during the checkout process. If you're a Shopify user, all the players need to do is visit the point redemption part of the widget and click "Apply Coupon". They can do that anytime and at any phase in their shopping journey, they will always find that the coupon code has been automatically applied during the checkout step.
2- Catching Players in the Checkout Process
![Reminder-message-while-checkout-to-apply-coupon](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6de_6-Coupon-Message-Reminder-1024x357.png)
Players often choose not to apply the coupon because they expect to find it automatically applied during the checkout, or they expect to be reminded to use it at this step. Reflecting on this player behavior, we thought why not do both!
As we explained how applying a coupon has become a one-click action on the widget, we also decided to notify the players of the coupons that are not yet used and the points that haven't been redeemed yet.
How, you ask? the answer is simple...Messages.
Now, Gameball has a new message format called "Voucher". When choosing this message shape, you can choose one of two message goals:
- Increase points redemption
- Increase coupons usage
The message format consists of a small text and a button. When the button is clicked on, the action will be applied whether that is redeeming an x amount of points or applying an existing coupon.
The Great news is...the message could be triggered when a player visits the cart or the checkout page, or any page for that matter. It could also be triggered when a player makes a certain action/event on your platform. Learn how to create a Voucher Message.
3- Email Notification upon Coupon Creation
![email-notification-upon-coupon-creation](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6458e71d82914848d4b8dd06/64c76d3f4b9a87e1740ed6d3_7-Email-Notification-upon-Coupon-Creation-1024x357.png)
In another attempt to remind the players to use their coupons, we have created a new email format designed to be sent every time a new coupon is created, This way a player will be reminded of the newly created coupons so that they make sure to apply them before checkout.
The email format also consists of a short text that tells the type and size of the voucher and a call-to-action button to incentivize the player to use/apply the coupon on the neatest opportunity. Configure a Coupon Email now.
As always, stay tuned for our monthly updates as more exciting updates are in the works. We are trying hard to always enhance our experience and fulfill all your requests and needs.
If you have any comments or suggestions, please send us an email to support@gameball.co