Case Study · Account & Loyalty · 2022
Single Account Initiative
Rebuilding account creation and loyalty enrollment for 10+ million customers during a full platform migration.
Role
Product Designer
Company
American Eagle Outfitters
Platform
iOS & Android
Tools
Axure · Sketch
Overview
The opportunity
AEO was replacing its entire loyalty engine. That is a significant undertaking on the backend. It is an even bigger deal when you consider that millions of customers already have accounts, loyalty balances, and established habits tied to the old system.
I led iOS and Android design for account creation, existing customer migration paths, and in-store sign-up support across both apps, navigating a migration that had 10+ million customers in the middle of it.
The Problem
A loyalty engine replacement with 10 million customers in the middle of it.
The existing system was built on the ATG Commerce platform, which was being replaced entirely. That migration was complex enough on its own. What made it harder was the state of the existing mobile experience — a comprehensive audit revealed extensive gaps across both iOS and Android that had to be resolved before the new engine could launch.
Aging ATG platform
The entire loyalty engine was being replaced, requiring design to account for the old system's data structure and customer state.
Optional loyalty enrollment
Loyalty sign-up was opt-in, resulting in enrollment rates well below what the business needed from the new platform.
Limited error handling
The existing flows had minimal error states, a significant liability when migrating millions of accounts with varying data quality.
No in-store sign-up path
Store associates had no way to initiate account creation through the mobile app, leaving a meaningful acquisition channel unused.
Problem Statement
“How might we migrate 10+ million existing customers into a new loyalty platform — and redesign account creation from the ground up — without breaking established customer relationships or losing enrollment momentum in the process?”
Strategy
Three calls that shaped the whole direction.
Before any wireframes, the team aligned on three strategic decisions. Each one resolved a specific gap in the existing experience and set the scope for the design work that followed.
Default loyalty opt-in
Made loyalty enrollment the default rather than an optional checkbox in the Create Account flow, maximizing enrollment without adding a single step of friction.
Dedicated migration flows
Designed specialized experiences for existing ATG customers, honoring their established relationship with the brand through clear, low-friction transitions rather than forcing them through new account creation.
In-store sign-up support
Extended account creation to support sign-ups initiated by store associates through the mobile app, closing an acquisition gap that had existed since the original app launch.
Design
Three flows, a lot of edge cases, and close collaboration with engineering.
The work covered three distinct flows, each with its own interaction logic, error states, and platform considerations. Cross-platform consistency was maintained throughout while preserving the distinct brand identities of AE and Aerie.
Create Account redesign
Rebuilt the account creation flow for iOS and Android from the ground up, with default loyalty opt-in baked in, streamlined field structure, and consistent brand expression across AE and Aerie without flattening their distinct identities.
ATG migration enrollment
Purpose-built flows for the 10M+ existing ATG customers who needed a path into the new system. This was the most edge-case-dense work of the project. Migration states, error handling, and duplicate account logic all had to be accounted for before a single customer hit the flow.
In-store account creation
Designed the handoff experience for store associate-led account creation, starting on the associate's device, transferring to the customer's phone, and completing enrollment without losing context or requiring the customer to start over.
Edge cases were the real design work
Migration projects don't fail at the happy path. They fail at the edge cases. A thorough audit before wireframes began surfaced the full scope of states that needed to be designed for.
Accounts existing in ATG without loyalty enrollment
Failed migration error states
Duplicate account detection and handling
In-store to personal device handoff logic
Cross-platform consistency across AE and Aerie brand identities
Partial enrollment states and recovery paths
Final Screens
What shipped
A selection of final screens from the Single Account migration experience.
Final screen from the Single Account migration flow, guiding existing customers through account consolidation.
Final screen from the loyalty enrollment experience, surfacing AEO Real Rewards benefits at the point of account creation.
Outcomes
More customers enrolled. Better data. Less confusion.
0
million+ existing customers reached through migration flows
Default opt-in drove enrollment at scale
Loyalty enrollment at account creation increased total program membership, bringing AEO Real Rewards to a significantly broader audience from the moment someone first engaged with the app.
Improved data accuracy across the platform
Replacing optional enrollment and limited error handling with structured, validated flows improved the accuracy and reliability of customer data across the system.
Reduced customer care inquiries
Dedicated migration paths and clear error states meant fewer customers ended up in broken account states, directly reducing contact center volume related to account issues.
In-store acquisition channel opened
Store associates could initiate account creation through the mobile app for the first time, closing a long-standing gap in how AEO acquired loyalty members in physical retail.
Reflection
Key learnings
Engineering partnership from the start is non-negotiable in migration work
“Migration projects surface edge cases that no amount of upfront design anticipation fully covers. Having engineering in the room from the beginning, not handed specs at the end, meant that when new states emerged mid-project, we already had the relationship and shared context to resolve them quickly.”
Default states carry measurable business consequences
“Changing loyalty opt-in from optional to default was a single design decision. It had enrollment implications across millions of accounts. The lesson isn't that defaults are always the right call. It's that they deserve the same scrutiny as any high-stakes product decision, because they shape outcomes at a scale most UI choices never reach.”
A thorough audit upfront prevents expensive surprises mid-project
“The gap audit we ran across iOS and Android before the project kicked off was one of the highest-leverage things I did on this engagement. It surfaced problems that would have been far more expensive to fix mid-sprint than they were to identify in advance.”