Before diving into development, we started by conducting a thorough market analysis. We spoke with local businesses, from cafés to hair salons, to understand their pain points with existing loyalty systems. The feedback was consistent: they needed something simple, accessible, and effective without the high costs or technical complexity. Customers, on the other hand, wanted convenience—a loyalty program they could access without needing to remember physical cards or manage multiple apps.

We followed a thorough UX process, beginning with an in-depth benchmarking analysis to understand the competitive landscape. From there, we brainstormed and refined our product value proposition, ensuring it addressed the specific needs of small businesses. We also developed empathy maps to better grasp the motivations and pain points of both merchants and customers. This user-centered approach guided our design and development decisions, ensuring Retreezy was both intuitive and valuable to its users from the ground up.

When deciding on Retreezy’s MVP (Minimum Viable Product), our goal was to focus on core features that delivered immediate value while allowing us to scale over time. Working within a tight three-month release window, we decided to prioritize the following key functionalities:

A clean and intuitive dashboard showing essential data like total members, points collected, and customer return rates.

A fully customizable digital loyalty card that merchants can design to fit their brand and customers can access through their phone’s wallet.

An easy system where merchants could scan customer QR codes to award points and redeem rewards during checkout.

To achieve the MVP within our timeline, we adopted an Agile methodology, working in two-week sprints. Each sprint allowed us to focus on a set of tasks, from design to development and testing. This iterative process gave us the flexibility to adapt quickly to changes and refine features based on ongoing feedback.

Our sprint structure looked like this:

• Sprint 1-2: Focus on user interface (UI) design and building the core loyalty card and QR code features.
• Sprint 3-4: Development of the merchant dashboard with key metrics and integration with digital wallet systems.
• Sprint 5-6: Finalization of the geolocation notifications and internal testing with mock data.
• Sprint 7-8: Beta testing with real users to ensure a smooth user experience, followed by refinement based on feedback.

• Matteo Botto: Design Lead
• Hassan Mir: Tech Lead

The design process for Retreezy focused on simplicity and flexibility. We wanted to create a platform that would allow businesses to customize their digital loyalty cards while maintaining ease of use. The merchant dashboard was designed with clear data visualization tools, making it easy for business owners to track metrics like customer return rates and point redemptions.

For the development, we built Retreezy as a web app in Rails, with seamless integration into customers’ digital wallets. This eliminated the need for them to download a separate app—simplifying their experience while making it easier for businesses to engage their customers.

We opted for a fun and playful style, combining vibrant colors with clean white backgrounds. To enhance the brand’s lighthearted feel, we chose a doodle illustration style that simplifies icon creation while emphasizing the brand’s playful essence.

The Retreezy design system was built using an atomic design approach, breaking down the interface into fundamental components—such as buttons, input fields, and icons—that could be reused and scaled across the platform. This ensured not only consistency but also flexibility as we expanded the product. By maintaining a shared language between design and development teams, we streamlined the handoff process and reduced friction in implementation. This close collaboration allowed us to rapidly iterate, ensuring that visual and functional elements were seamlessly integrated, delivering a cohesive user experience.

The merchant web app offers an intuitive dashboard to manage loyalty programs, track customer insights, and easily reward repeat business.

The Retreezy marketing website is designed to drive engagement and conversions, optimized for SEO and tailored to attract small businesses looking for a simple, powerful loyalty solution.

Without downloading any app, the customer can simply add the card to his wallet by only entering his email.

A simple app for the merchant to scan customer cards and give points/retrieve rewards.

For the initial launch of Retreezy, we partnered with a group of early testers from local businesses in the UK and Italy. This diverse group, ranging from cafés to hair salons, provided valuable real-world feedback on both the merchant and customer experiences. By observing how different businesses integrated the platform, we were able to identify key improvements, such as refining the QR code scanning process and enhancing the user interface for quicker interactions. The feedback from these tests was instrumental in shaping Retreezy, allowing us to make data-driven decisions and optimize the product before wider release.