Shopify

Overview

Shopify launched a new plug-and-play product for building social marketing audiences. I was the sole designer and strategist, building this app end-to-end in 30 days. The simple yet powerful app makes it easy to connect your store and start segmenting your marketing within minutes.

Problem

Merchants needed better audience segmentation for social advertising:

• Third-party audience tools were complex and expensive
• No native Shopify solution for social audience building
• Merchants struggled to translate customer data into effective ad targeting
• Integration between Shopify and social platforms was complicated
• Need to deliver full product—name, brand, and design—in just 30 days

Goals

• Name, brand, and design complete product in 30 days
• Create simple in-admin tool that outperforms complex third-party solutions
• Make audience building accessible to all merchants, not just marketing experts
• Drive adoption through ease of use
• Enable merchants to connect store and start segmenting within minutes

Process

We started from the idea of building a simple audience connection tool on a per product level for key social networks. Once the Product Management team had shaped the product vision, we worked together to name, brand, and design the app.

The 30-day timeline meant ruthless prioritization. We focused on:

• Core functionality that delivers immediate value
• Simple onboarding that gets merchants started fast
• Clear, intuitive interface that requires no training
• Integration that just works

The onboarding and creation process is simple and only requires a couple of screens in the Shopify admin. The landing page, illustrations, launch video, and content were all shaped by our group during a rapid sprint and handed off for launch to a test audience of seed merchants.

Solution

Simple Audience Builder The app makes audience building accessible:

• Connect store to social platforms in minutes
• Simple interface for creating audience segments
• No complex targeting options to overwhelm users
• Automatic syncing between Shopify and social platforms

30-Day Sprint In 30 days we delivered:

• Product name: Shopify Audiences
• Complete brand identity
• Product design and user flows
• Landing page and marketing materials
• Launch video and illustrations
• Documentation and onboarding

Just-in-Time Onboarding Following patterns from Shopify Markets and Shipping, we used in-admin onboarding rather than external landing pages. Merchants discover, learn about, and activate the product all within the admin they already use.

Result

Shopify Audiences has performed very well for seeded merchants and is gaining ground with self-activating merchants. The standalone app works very well, while there have been a few bumps on the data side to ensure that data integrity and reliability are upheld.

The onboarding, activation, and management process have all been praised for their ease of use and simple integration right into the Shopify Admin. The 30-day timeline was met successfully, delivering a complete, branded product from concept to launch.