AIR MILES, Canada’s top loyalty rewards program with over 10 million members, partnered with TribalScale to completely overhaul their online Shops experience. The goal: modernize UX, streamline content management, and empower marketing teams—all while launching ahead of the year’s busiest shopping period.
Impact Delivered
Challenge
The existing airmilesshops.ca platform hadn’t been updated in over a decade, leading to outdated UX and poor usability.
AIR MILES needed to understand evolving member behaviors, prioritize only the most valuable features, redesign for WCAG accessibility, and create a site that could be easily updated—without constant engineering support.
Solution
TribalScale jumped in with early momentum—running an internal design sprint to validate ideas before the engagement even began. From discovery to delivery, our design-led and data-driven process included member interviews, stakeholder workshops, A/B testing, and iterative design.
Discovery & Design: Conducted interviews with AIR MILES collectors and stakeholders, rearchitected content flow and navigation, and developed wireframes leading to an accessible and appealing interface.
Development: Rebuilt the platform from scratch using React and a flexible CMS (Contentful), enabling marketing to manage content, promotions, and seasonal updates independently.
Quality Assurance: Engaged AIR MILES throughout development—running iterative QA checks to ensure performance, quality, and alignment. Technologies included Algolia, Google Analytics, Splunk, AWS, and GraphQL.
Tools and Technologies Used:
Google Analytics
Splunk
Graph QL
React
Outcome
Since launch, TribalScale’s engagement extended into backend enhancements, regular feature updates, and even a Chrome extension—driven by a flexible infrastructure and ongoing retainer. This ensured AIR MILES stayed competitive, continuously engaged users, and maintained stellar site performance as demand grew.
Why It Matters
This transformation showcases how loyalty programs can modernize legacy platforms to deliver high-quality digital experiences at scale. By combining member insight, agile design, and developer-friendly infrastructure, AIR MILES built a resilient, accessible, and self-sufficient online channel. This project sets a new bar for loyalty-driven digital innovation.