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Product Link Converter: turning around an S$8M revenue risk

Led the design response to an S$8M revenue risk by changing how users shop on Shopee. Saved 60% of it through the affiliate rule change, 20% above target.

2024 – 2025

Role
Senior product designer, then design manager
Team
Product manager and engineers (mobile, backend and machine learning)
Stack
  • Figma
Outcome
60% of an S$8M revenue risk saved through Shopee's affiliate rule change, 20% above target

The shift

Shopee is ShopBack's biggest merchant across Southeast Asia, and drives about 80% of revenue in its emerging markets. It pays ShopBack through its affiliate programme, Affiliate Marketing Solutions (AMS). Until 2024, a user could fill a Shopee cart, come through ShopBack once and earn cashback on everything in it.

In 2023, Shopee announced a new rule that took effect in 2024. It now pays commission only when the user buys from the seller ShopBack sent them to, which is called a direct order. If they buy from any other seller, the order is indirect and earns nothing. About S$8M of revenue was at risk, and commissions in Indonesia and the Philippines fell by about 80% once the change took effect. The goal was to save as much of that revenue as possible before the rule took effect.

What made it hard

  • Root cause: Users add what they want to their cart first at Shopee, then come to ShopBack afterwards or not at all. More than 70% of AMS customers had never made a direct order.
  • Consequence: The first attempt was SKU search, where users search ShopBack for a product sold on Shopee. It did not change behaviour, because it only reached users who already started at ShopBack. Raising the cashback did not change it either.
  • Constraint: ShopBack's product database only holds Shopee products that are part of the affiliate programme, so search showed far fewer results than Shopee itself. Whatever replaced search had to be as simple as possible for users. Shopee might not pay for direct orders from sellers outside the programme, so those orders earn the user no cashback.

What I did

Designed the Product Link Converter (PLC), a new flow that changed how ShopBack's Shopee users shop.
The paste flow: how to copy a link, the cashback shown up front, and the S$0.01 page that suggests similar products.
The paste flow: how to copy a link, the cashback shown up front, and the S$0.01 page that suggests similar products.
  • Showed S$0.01 cashback on products that earn no commission, so users are still rewarded instead of hitting a dead end. The same page suggests similar products that earn more.
  • Led solution discovery with the research team to derisk the idea and understand our users.
  • Initiated a consistent communication strategy by working with a UX writer on content guidelines so marketing and operations teams in every market explain the new rule the same way.
From the content guide: Shopee pays only when the order traces back to the seller ShopBack sent the user to.
Where we reach users before and after they shop: inform, remind and diagnose.
From the content guide: Shopee pays only when the order traces back to the seller ShopBack sent the user to.
  • Added reinforcement messages after each order. A direct order confirms the user earned more cashback, and an indirect order explains why it earned less and what to do next time.
After a direct order: the user tapped a store and bought from it, so they earned more cashback.
After a direct order: the user tapped a store and bought from it, so they earned more cashback.
After an indirect order: the store offers no higher cashback, so the user is told to check other stores next time.
After an indirect order: the store offers no higher cashback, so the user is told to check other stores next time.

What changed

  • PLC saved 60% of the revenue at risk through the affiliate rule change, 20% above target.
  • About 90% of orders through PLC are direct orders today, so they earn commission.
  • Users pasted 1.05 million links between 14 January and 9 April 2026, 20% above target.
  • SKU search was retired. In some markets, PLC is now the only way to shop Shopee through ShopBack.
  • PLC expanded to Lazada, Taobao and AliExpress in 2024 and TikTok Shop in 2025, and the team tested a multi-item cart in 2026.