Vol. 02
Zolve turns Black Friday into a four-day, $7.3 million behavior shift
A reward-first engagement system transforms intent into habit — driving Zolve’s highest-ever transaction volume
LOCATION
Bengaluru, Karnataka
AUTHOR
Shubhank Sharma
DATE
13th November, 2025
Bengaluru, Karnataka — At Zolve, the problem wasn’t issuing credit cards. It was getting users to choose them consistently.
Users had accounts. They had access to credit.
But they hadn’t yet built the habit of using Zolve as their primary card.
In a credit business, that gap shows up clearly:
low transaction frequency → low wallet share → limited revenue impact
Black Friday presented a narrow window to address this.
For four days, user intent to spend was already high. The question was whether that intent could be captured and repeated, not just triggered once.
Typical Black Friday strategies rely on:
Discounts
Cashback offers
One-time incentives
They create spikes, but rarely change behavior.
The goal here was different:
Design a system that encourages users to come back — not just transact once.
What was the problem Statement?
Typical Black Friday strategies rely on:
Discounts
Cashback offers
One-time incentives
They create spikes, but rarely change behavior.
The goal here was different:
Design a system that encourages users to come back — not just transact once.
I approached this as a behavior design problem, not a campaign.
The system centered around a simple mechanic:
A spin-the-wheel, available once every 24 hours
But the structure behind it was deliberate.
Users spin → immediately see a reward
The reward is tied to a specific task
Completing the task unlocks the reward
The loop resets the next day
Designing for behavior, not just engagement
Structuring incentives deliberately
Not all actions were equal — so rewards weren’t either.
Low-effort actions → smaller rewards
High-value actions (SSN addition, bank linking) → larger rewards
This ensured that:
User motivation aligned directly with business priorities
Designing for repetition
Instead of a one-time flow, the system was built as a daily loop.
The intent wasn’t just engagement — it was habit formation.
Each day:
A new opportunity
A new reward
A reason to return
The first 18 hours underperformed compared to the previous year.
The system needed time to establish its loop.
Once users entered it, behavior stabilized and engagement compounded quickly.
What didn’t go as planned
RESULT
$7.3M in transactions across four days
7x activation compared to the best campaign in the previous year
67% of app visitors engaged with the system
More importantly, the campaign demonstrated something deeper:
User behavior can be shaped when incentives are structured clearly.
Takeaway
Users don’t engage because rewards exist
They engage when the path to earning them is obvious