Harrods in Your Pocket: A luxury retail app experience (IOS & Android)

Harrods needed their mobile app to do more than facilitate transactions. Despite the brand's legendary in store experience, the app existed as a separate entity, creating friction rather than connection. Customers shopping in the boutique had little reason to open the app, and the Harrods Rewards programme felt disconnected from the actual shopping experience.

The challenge
Transform the Harrods app from a standalone shopping tool into a genuine omnichannel experience that:

• Seamlessly connects digital and physical shopping journeys

• Gives customers compelling reasons to use the app whilst in store

• Makes the Harrods Rewards programme feel integrated and rewarding

• Increases both app engagement and overall conversion rates

• Maintains the elevated experience expected from a luxury brand

Design solution
I led a complete reimagining of the core user journeys, focusing on making the app valuable at every touchpoint.

In-Store QR product scanning
The biggest opportunity was making the app useful during store visits. I designed a QR scanning feature that lets customers scan products to access detailed information, check availability, and crucially earn Rewards points for engagement before even purchasing. This created an immediate value exchange: customers get enhanced product discovery, Harrods captures valuable behavioural data, and the gap between channels starts closing.

Unified rewards experience
Rather than treating points as an afterthought, I restructured Harrods Rewards to be visible throughout every journey. Real-time accumulation, clear tier progression, and contextual redemption prompts ("You've earned enough for 10% off") made the programme feel tangible and motivating.

Phygital journey design
I created flows that actively encourage app usage in-store counterintuitive but powerful. Auto detected Store Mode highlights live activations and exclusive offers. Buy Online, In-Store lets customers research physically but checkout digitally for accelerated rewards. Seamless cart synchronisation means customers can browse in-store, then complete their purchase later with intelligent reminders.

Prototyping
Before development, I built comprehensive Figma prototypes covering all major journeys, states, and edge cases. This enabled stakeholder alignment, rapid usability testing with luxury shoppers, and detailed component behaviour refinement ensuring both feasibility and quality before engineering investment.