Luminary Retail Mobile App
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Mobile

Luminary Retail Mobile App

A personalized shopping app that increased customer retention by 40% and drove $28M in incremental annual revenue.

Client
Luminary Retail
Year
2023
Duration
7 months
Key Outcome
40% increase in customer retention, $28M incremental annual revenue

The Business Problem

Luminary Retail had a mobile app that looked dated, performed poorly, and offered no meaningful personalization. Their app store rating was 2.8. Their mobile conversion rate was 1.2% — well below the industry average of 3.4%.

More concerning: user research showed that customers actively avoided the app, preferring to browse on desktop or in-store. A mobile app had become a brand liability.

Our Approach

Phase 1: Diagnosis (Weeks 1-3)

We started with data, not design. Analysis of the existing app revealed:

  • Average load time of 8.2 seconds on a mid-range device
  • 34% of users encountered at least one crash per session
  • Checkout flow had 9 screens — industry standard is 4
  • No personalization: every user saw the same homepage

Phase 2: Architecture (Weeks 4-8)

We chose React Native for its cross-platform efficiency and the team's existing JavaScript expertise. Key architectural decisions:

Image optimization pipeline. Product images were the primary performance culprit. We built an automated image pipeline on CloudFront that serves appropriately-sized, format-optimized images based on device capabilities.

Recommendation engine. We integrated a collaborative filtering model trained on 2 years of purchase history. The model runs server-side and returns personalized product rankings in under 50ms.

Optimistic UI throughout. Every user action responds immediately with an optimistic update. Cart additions, wishlist saves, and search refinements feel instantaneous even on slow connections.

Phase 3: Checkout Redesign

We compressed 9 checkout screens to 3:

  1. Cart review + promo code
  2. Delivery address (with saved addresses)
  3. Payment + confirmation

Stored payment methods and one-tap checkout for returning users. Guest checkout that doesn't require account creation.

Results

  • 4.7 App Store rating (up from 2.8)
  • 3.8% mobile conversion rate (up from 1.2%)
  • 40% improvement in 30-day customer retention
  • $28M incremental annual revenue attributed to mobile channel
  • 1.4s average load time (down from 8.2s)
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