Bolt Plus
Subscription Experience

A subscription program that needed to be felt, not just noticed

Bolt Plus is a food delivery subscription offering free delivery, menu discounts, and service fee waivers. The product worked — but users couldn't see or feel the value clearly enough to subscribe, and subscribers couldn't see it reinforced throughout their experience.

This case study covers three connected features that together form the complete Bolt Plus eater experience: the Hero Banner for acquisition, Menu Discounts for visible in-app savings, and the Checkout Upsell Banner for conversion at the highest-intent moment.

Bolt Plus value proposition — cross-vertical savings communicated through the new 3D illustration language.

Invisible value doesn't convert — and doesn't retain

Before these features launched, the subscription had a communication gap at every stage of the journey:

• Home screen. Non-subscribers had no prominent, dedicated surface for Bolt Plus. It competed in a rotating banner carousel with severe impression drop-off — the banner was lucky to be seen at all.
• Menu browsing. Even when discount campaigns were running, prices looked identical to everyone. Subscribers had no visual confirmation they were saving; non-subscribers had no tangible reason to sign up.
• Checkout. The highest-intent moment — basket built, ready to pay — went completely unused as a conversion point. There was no prompt showing the exact savings a user was leaving on the table.
• Post-subscription. After joining, there was no persistent reinforcement of the savings per order. Value was felt once at sign-up and then largely disappeared from the experience.

Making Bolt Plus the first thing you see

The Hero Banner occupies position zero on the home screen — above all categories, shortcuts, and the banner carousel. For non-subscribed users, it carries the Bolt Plus pitch: full-width, video-capable, and guaranteed visible every single session.

Hero banner (position zero) driving to the Bolt Plus subscription page — new 3D illustration style with animated assets

Why this placement matters

Previously, the Bolt Plus placement rotated in a banner carousel alongside trade event banners and FMCG promotions. One slot among many, auto-rotating every 3 seconds, with impression drop-off beyond the first position.

The Hero Banner gave Plus its own guaranteed, non-competing space. Only one banner per screen, ever — forcing true prioritisation rather than competition for the same slot.

Cohort logic

The banner is shown to non-subscribed users only. Subscribers see the same slot used for seasonal campaigns. This prevents showing a sign-up pitch to people who already subscribe — a basic UX hygiene issue the carousel couldn't enforce.

A/B test

Tested against the existing control (Bolt Plus in the carousel + home category) across multiple markets over approximately five weeks. Primary KPIs: subscription rate, hero banner CTR, and conversion to menu viewed — with overall orders per user as the guardrail metric.

A personalised saving shown at exactly the right moment

The checkout screen is the single highest-intent moment in the ordering journey. It's also where the cost of not having Bolt Plus is most concrete: this specific basket, this specific order, right now.

The checkout upsell banner — computed server-side to show the exact saving on the current basket. "Try it free" CTA with clear before/after pricing comparison.

The design bet

Technical design

The saving is computed server-side per basket — not a generic claim, but the actual delta between the user's current total and what they'd pay as a Plus member. The banner object (title, subtitle, description, background, image, CTA) is served dynamically, enabling rapid copy and layout iteration without a client release.

Attributing every saving to the subscription

Menu Discounts are Bolt Plus branded item-level price reductions. Before this feature, campaigns could be running and prices would look identical to all users — the benefit was functionally invisible.

Why attribution matters

"You saved €3.50" is less powerful than "You saved €3.50 with Bolt Plus" — especially when the goal is retention. Every attributed saving is a micro-reminder of why the subscription is worth keeping.

A new is_bolt_plus flag on the campaign table let every downstream surface — basket, active order, history — correctly identify and display Plus branding without ambiguity. A new DisplayOptionStyle.BOLT_PLUS enum told the UI when to render green prices.

Three features that work as one loop

What we learned