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From convenience store to digital service ecosystem

OXXO is the largest convenience store with over 17,000 locations across Mexico and provides more than 2,000 services at the cashier.  

OXXO wanted to extend its convenience-store experience beyond the cashier by bringing everyday services into a mobile app. The experience needed to support utility and mobile payments, introduce the Premia rewards program, migrate existing users, and create a foundation for future services and vendors.

CASE STUDY OXXO

CHALLENGE

Designing a future-proof mobile experience

OXXO wanted to extend the convenience of its physical stores into a mobile experience. The goal was not simply to replicate what customers could already do at the cashier, but to create a digital ecosystem where customers could pay bills, top up their phones, earn and redeem rewards, and discover offers, while reducing traffic to physical stores.

One of the challenges was making this transition intuitive for users who were accustomed to completing these transactions in person, while creating a scalable foundation that could support additional services and vendors in the future.

APPROACH

Designing the bridge from physical to digital

How do you turn thousands of in-store services into a simple, scalable mobile experience? The challenge wasn't simply digitizing existing services.
 

It was designing an experience that could make complex transactions feel simple, help customers unfamiliar with digital services understand what to expect, and create a platform that could grow over time.

Making a complex ecosystem understandable

Mapped raw payment data into wireframes, prioritized MVP tasks with the team, and delivered extensive UX documentation (flows, wireframes) plus UI guidelines for internal projects.

Designing for people 

Led 3 usability tests (in-person/remote) and customer/employee interviews over 6 months at OXXO stores in Monterrey, Mexico, driving an iterative design process.
 

Key Iteration Example:
 

  • Phase 1 Testing: Focus groups revealed confusion, users knew products earned points, but not that barcode scanning (physical/digital card) was required.​

  • Design Solution: Added explicit "SCAN, COLLECT & WIN" onboarding, card screens, and contextual prompts throughout flows.

  • Phase 3 Validation: Users found scanning crystal clear, achieving perfect comprehension—a clear team win!

Designing payments that could scale

Designed a future-proof design system for an app integrating grocery/takeout delivery, loyalty programs, payments (20+ providers with multi-scenario flows), and more. 

CONTRIBUTIONS

Created a scalable foundation for bringing OXXO's physical services into digital.

Turned complex, vendor-dependent payment scenarios into consistent customer flows.

Established a design system that could support additional services and vendors without redesigning the experience from scratch.

Designed onboarding and contextual guidance to help customers transition from familiar in-store transactions to digital services.

Mapped 20+ interaction scenarios with Engineering to translate complex business rules into scalable customer experience.

© 2025 by Teresa Huesca
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