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“Our Z Rewards programme is designed to be simple and understandable... To be generous and compelling for people to want to use. And to be a vehicle for us to communicate with our customers. And if we hit all those marks, we create something that is really valuable for our customers and also really valuable for us.”
When Flybuys left New Zealand in 2024, Z Energy saw an opportunity to launch their own digital-first loyalty programme. Z Rewards launched in March 2025 as a way for New Zealanders to convert points into fuel, coffee and hot food. Eight years of customer insights and design system investment enabled rapid delivery of a comprehensive loyalty solution that achieved number one app store rankings and delivered measurable business impact within the first month.
Expertise
Product Strategy
Experience Auditing
Research
UX Design
UI Design
Information Architecture
Accessibility
Frontend Development
Backend Development
Native Application Development
Systems Architecture
Cloud / Systems Integration
Quality Assurance & Testing
Application Support
64k+
app downloads in first month
175k
treats redeemed in first three months
46%
increase in engagement from previously lapsed customers
Years of customer research and design system investment provided the foundation for rapid execution. The team understood driver behaviours, sacred food combinations (hot pies with energy drinks), and friction points that frustrated customers - forgotten loyalty cards, complex rewards systems, and long queues. The established design system became crucial for speed without compromising quality. Rather than starting from scratch, designers could leverage proven components and patterns, focusing on customer experience innovation and delightful interactions.
"I've been around IT and tech for over 40 years. I've seen many releases. I've seen many failures, many successes. This release is, for me, the most successful software release I've ever seen in that entire 40 years. Our customers got what we promised they would get on day one."
Z Energy made the bold decision to launch a digital-only loyalty programme. This operational efficiency decision matched how Kiwis live their lives - reducing wallet clutter while enabling automatic fuel discounts, one-click loyalty cards, and real-time balance updates.
The solution addressed specific customer pain points: no plastic cards to forget, automatic appearance when arriving at stations, and simple point conversion to everyday treats that matter to New Zealanders. Eight years of customer insights drove every design decision. The team understood that drivers wanted frictionless experiences and knew the sacred Kiwi combinations customers actually wanted to redeem points for.
The solution required seamless integration across Z's entire digital ecosystem: Pay-by-Plate autonomous payments, Sharetank virtual fuel management, Pre-ordering, EV charging networks, and point-of-sale systems. We designed an event-driven architecture enabling real-time synchronisation across 15+ backend services whilst maintaining sub-second response times during peak usage.
We were able to maximise our established digital infrastructure investment, leveraging cloud-native microservices architecture, real-time event streaming, and machine learning personalisation engines. The implementation of sophisticated geofencing technology for contextual loyalty card activation, advanced cryptographic security for payment processing, and behavioural analytics for predictive optimisation offer something very special to customers.
