Research & Analysis:

Research spanned behavioural analytics, user interviews, competitive benchmarking, and cross-functional workshops across three phases. The objective was to understand the activation gap between entertainment and commerce, and evaluate how incentive design could shift user behavior without harming trust.

• 68% of daily active users never tapped the Shop tab, revealing a clear activation gap between watching and buying behaviour.

• Users repeatedly expressed a fairness concern: “I give my time, the app gives me nothing,” indicating a reciprocity gap in the engagement model.

• Competitive benchmarking confirmed scratch-card mechanics outperform passive point systems among Tier 2/3 Indian users due to cultural familiarity and instant anticipation.

Heatmaps confirmed that the product shelf was largely ignored during video sessions, reinforcing the need for an engagement trigger rather than a static commerce entry point. In collaboration with Business and Finance, we evaluated multiple incentive structures including lottery drops, passive coin accumulation, and gamified scratch mechanics before formalizing the coin-to-rupee ratio (1000 coins = ₹1) and introducing a transparent UPI delay as a strategic retention lever. The resulting hypothesis was clear: an intermittent, scratch-based reward loop could restore reciprocity, extend session depth, and nudge users from passive watching into active shop participation.

Pain Points:

• Users experienced no sense of reciprocity for the time spent watching videos, leading to reduced repeat engagement.

• The Shop tab felt disconnected from the entertainment flow, creating an abrupt context switch from watching to shopping.Fear of losing credibility when followers complain.

• The platform lacked delight triggers such as anticipation, surprise, or reward mechanics that drive habitual return.

• UPI redemption delays, when not clearly explained, created distrust and perceived withholding of earnings.

User Personas Summary:

Participants ranged from 16-34 years old across Tier 1 (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru), Tier 2 (Jaipur, Indore, Lucknow), and Tier 3 (Muzaffarpur, Guntur, Belgaum). The majority were college students and young working women aged 18-26, with a secondary male segment aged 22-32 interested in gadgets and streetwear. All actively used Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and preferred Meesho, Myntra, or Amazon for shopping. None had organically engaged with Hipi Shop prior to testing. However, every participant immediately understood the scratch-card mechanic without instruction, drawing parallels to offline retail experiences. The mechanic triggered immediate interaction and emotional engagement across segments.

User Journey Summary:

Users typically opened Hipi for short entertainment bursts lasting 10-25 minutes, primarily during commutes or evening downtime. Video consumption was largely passive, with occasional likes but minimal interaction with product shelves. When a scratch card appeared mid-session during testing, all participants stopped scrolling and engaged instantly, requiring no onboarding or explanation. At the redemption step, user behavior split: those aware of Hipi Shop redeemed immediately and reported high satisfaction, while those unfamiliar defaulted to UPI, encountered the 30-45 day delay, and often abandoned redemption. The key insight was that Hipi Shop needed to be foregrounded as the primary call-to-action at redemption rather than treated as a secondary option.