Openfit · 2021
Express Checkout & Churn Prevention
Two revenue problems, two very different design challenges
At Openfit, I worked across two high-impact initiatives running in parallel: redesigning the core checkout experience and building a cancel-prevention flow in collaboration with the Growth team.
The checkout work was a conversion optimization problem — reducing friction around payment options to get more users through the purchase funnel. The cancel-prevention work was a retention strategy problem — designing an intentional moment that gave users a reason to stay before they made a final decision to leave.
Cart abandonment and subscription churn were both eating into revenue — from opposite ends
Cart abandonment was driven by friction in the payment flow. Users would drop off when they reached the payment step — not because they didn't want the product, but because the checkout experience didn't meet the standard of speed and convenience they'd come to expect.
Subscription churn was a different problem. Users who had already paid, already onboarded, and already used the product were leaving — and there was no intentional design touchpoint to interrupt that decision before it became final.
A/B testing two checkout hypotheses at the same time
For the checkout redesign, I designed two variants for simultaneous A/B testing. Variant 1 streamlined the Apple Pay integration — betting that reducing payment steps to a single tap would drive conversion. Variant 2 expanded payment options broadly, adding PayPal and digital wallets alongside credit card and Apple Pay — betting that option breadth would win more users than speed alone.
For cancel prevention, I worked closely with the Growth team to identify which value props and friction-reducers were most likely to interrupt a cancellation decision. We iterated the flow several times based on session recordings and user interviews with recently churned customers.
Fewer steps for checkout, a well-timed moment for retention
The A/B test resolved clearly in favor of Variant 2 — expanding payment options outperformed Apple Pay alone. Design Variant 2 became the primary checkout experience across Openfit and Ladder.com.
The cancel-prevention flow was designed as a single, well-considered screen that appeared at the moment a user initiated cancellation. It surfaced the right value props for the specific subscription tier, offered an alternative to full cancellation, and gave users a clear path back to the product if they chose to stay.
33% churn reduction and an 8% CVR lift — both validated through testing
The cancel-prevention flow reduced churn by 33%, designed, tested, and iterated in close collaboration with the Growth team. The checkout redesign delivered an 8% increase in Purchase CVR on Ladder.com — a number that compounds significantly at subscription scale.
Both initiatives were validated through controlled testing before full rollout — which meant the numbers were real, not projected.