Gift Card Conversion
Turning an Operational Cost into a Product Opportunity
Finding the Opportunity
Context & Challenge
From Proposal to Buy-in
We launched a new gift card system in partnership with a third-party provider. Existing merchants using legacy gift cards, as well as merchants switching from competitors, needed to migrate their gift cards to the new system. However, the migration process relied entirely on the third-party provider, making every migration inefficient, costly, and difficult to scale.
After working closely with our support team to assist the first 3 merchants with gift card migration, I realized this wasn't just an operational issue, but a product opportunity. I proposed building an internal card conversion tool to reduce third-party dependency, turn the migration process into an internal product capability, and create a new revenue opportunity.
However, my manager responded, “Engineering resources are limited,” and questioned whether this project should be prioritized. To build the business case, I initiated a series of discussions with the Third-party Provider, the Business Development team, and the Engineering team to validate market demand, strategic alignment, technical feasibility, and implementation effort.
Internal Gift Card Conversion
Most of the complexity lived in the backend, where legacy cards were mapped to newly created cards. My goal was to keep the support team's workflow as simple as uploading an Excel file.
Simplified Conversion Flow
1
Collect Legacy Card Information
Support collects legacy gift card information from the merchant.
2
Upload Excel File
Upload the conversion spreadsheet through the Internal Gift Card Conversion tool.
3
Generate & Map New Cards
The system creates new gift cards and maps them to the corresponding legacy cards.
4
Export Updated Records
Download the completed conversion file for future reference.
Together, these findings demonstrated that an internal conversion tool was not only technically feasible, but also strategically aligned, commercially valuable, and achievable with minimal engineering investment. My manager approved the proposal and the project moved forward.
Small Investment. Significant Business Value.
Business Impact
Takeaway
Sometimes the biggest product opportunities don't come from feature request, they emerge from operational pain points.
Role
Product Lead & Designer
Ownership
Initiated the project and drove product strategy, stakeholder alignment, and end-to-end design.
Timeline
Dec 2023 - Mar 2024
With Our Own Conversion Tool
Continuous Market Demand
Our data showed that over 900 merchants required legacy gift card conversion, while merchants migrating from competitors would continue to generate new conversion requests over time.
Strategic Merchant Categories
Our data also showed most gift card merchants were franchise restaurants with high average order values and belonged to MenuSifu's strategic growth categories, including hot pot, all-you-can-eat, fast food, and milk tea.
Technical Feasibility
After validating the technical approach with both the third-party provider and our engineering team, we confirmed that building an internal gift card conversion tool was technically feasible.
Small Development Scope
Engineering team estimated that the project required a mapping database, search functionality, conversion APIs, and a simple upload interface. The total effort was approximately three weeks for one full-stack engineer.
Operational Efficiency
By eliminating unnecessary handoffs between support teams, the internal conversion tool streamlined the migration workflow, reduced manual effort, and lowered operational costs.
Potential Revenue Stream
An internal conversion tool enabled MenuSifu to own the conversion process and capture the conversion revenue instead of the third-party provider.
900+
Merchants Successfully Migrated
Within five months of launch, over 900 merchants successfully migrated their legacy gift cards using the new internal conversion tool.
50%
Reduction in Support Effort
The Support team reported that each conversion required more than 50% less manual effort, significantly reducing operational costs.
Positive
Merchant Feedback
merchants reported a smooth conversion experience, with customers able to continue redeeming their existing gift cards seamlessly.
New
Revenue Stream
MenuSifu launched an internal gift card conversion service, creating a new recurring revenue stream while eliminating third-party dependency.
By bringing gift card conversion in-house, MenuSifu improved operational efficiency, reduced costs, enhanced the merchant experience, and unlocked a new revenue stream.
Preparation
Collecting legacy gift card data and organizing it into CSV files is the first step of the conversion process. Since support teams already managed merchant data in spreadsheets, I reused their existing workflow instead of introducing a new one. To reduce mistakes during data preparation, I surfaced the key requirements directly in the interface.
Import Legacy Cards
I broke the importing workflow into four sequential steps: Select File, Validate Data, Import Cards, Download Complete Work. So support teams could focus on one task at a time, reducing cognitive load and making the process easier to follow.
Select File
The workflow begins with selecting a CSV file. All subsequent actions remain disabled until a file is selected, guiding users through one step at a time.
Validate Data
Before allowing card creation, the system validates the uploaded file and surfaces row-level errors, enabling support teams to fix only the affected records instead of reviewing the entire spreadsheet.
Import Cards
The system only allows one file to be imported at a time, keeping the workflow simple and ensuring support teams focus on one conversion at a time.
Download Complete Work
The support team can review previous import results and download the completed conversion records for future reference.
