Blish Pay — Solving the trust problem in African social commerce
Background —
Social media use has evolved over the years from simply sharing thoughts and photos, to advanced ecommerce, also known as “Social Commerce.” As with anything that relies on trust, there are usually bad actors who seek to take advantage of this. A recent survey showed that most people had been, or at least knew someone who had been scammed by a vendor on social media.
It is no surprise that this cross-section of users would be happy to find a way to secure their funds until they were sure they got what they paid for.
PS: Shopping on Social Media Platforms Expected to Reach $1.2 Trillion Globally by 2025, according to Accenture.
My Role —
During my time on this project, I handled various tasks, including user and market research, product requirements gathering, product design, and web design. I worked closely with the founder and the team of developers to ensure that our designs were in line with the company's overall vision and goals.
Project duration: 3 months
The Problem —
- Trust Deficit in Social Commerce: Widespread concerns about the reliability and integrity of transactions within the realm of social commerce in Africa. Users grapple with uncertainties regarding the authenticity of products and services, impacting the overall trustworthiness of online transactions.
- Limitations of International Payment Platforms: Restrictive offerings from international platforms like PayPal, Payoneer, Wise, etc, to Nigerians/Africans, limiting the scope and efficiency of cross-border business. The need for a more inclusive and tailored "in-house" alternative to overcome the constraints imposed by these international payment gateways.
Goals & Objectives —
Our major goal is to solve the trust problem in social commerce in Africa. By doing this, other emergent objectives can be achieved, such as:
- Protect online buyers and sellers of products and services.
- Provide an “in-house” alternative to restrictive international payment platforms like PayPal who offer Nigerians/Africans very limited versions of their products, affecting the way we do cross-border business.
- Enable fast and smooth payments (including cross-border payments) for Africans.
Research —
USER RESEARCH
I conducted a quick online survey in order to get a real-life, hands-on perspective on user's past experiences to better understand user pain points and drive design decisions. Here are three responses that stood out:
KEY FINDINGS:
- A lot of people either knew someone close to them who had been a victim of dishonest vendors or had been a victim themselves.
- Many users, especially entrepreneurs, small business owners and social media shoppers would be happy to have a payment platform that did not only help them make payments during purchases, but also helped them secure their funds in case fraudulent activity is discovered.
MARKET RESEARCH
On the market side, Africa has made huge leaps in the fintech sector, with products like Send by Flutterwave, Paystack, Selar, Bumpa and many others trying to fill the social ecommerce gap, but a quick comparison of these products showed that most of the advantages they have over regular banking apps are confined to:
- Transaction speeds
- Ease of doing social business
- Setting up a quick online store
The major user pain points that have been left unsolved so far, which we set out to solve with Blish Pay:
- Protect online buyers and sellers of products and services from fraudulent actors.
- Help vendors especially, and buyers as well, build trust through a profile reputation system.
Requirements Gathering —
Once the problem, goals and objectives were well established, with key insights gained from talking to prospective users, I proceeded to gathering requirements for the product. Read more here.
The Solution — Not Your Regular Payments App
To solve the issues previously identified, it was clear we needed to create a platform that not only enabled quick transfers, but also found a way to secure a buyer's money until all parties agree that the transaction terms have been met.
Introducing Blish Secure
Blish Secure helps users secure their funds during transactions by:
- Creating a smart contract that is admissible in the court of law, in order to guide all the parties involved during and after the transaction.
- Locking the funds until all parties sign off on the transaction.
By using Blish Secure for a transaction, users are able to lock their funds until they're satisfied the goods or services they're paying for are what they're getting. This creates a win-win situation for all parties involved. Sellers can see on their own end that the funds have been locked and the buyer is unable to get the goods/servces and then disappear. Blish Secure empowers everyone involved in the transaction, which is what we set out to achieve with the product.
The buyer and the seller both need to check off statements confirming they're satisfied and ready to close the transaction. When this is done, the transaction is reviewed by the system and in the absence of a dispute, it is marked complete, and funds are released.
"What I paid for vs What I got" — A Simple Dispute Management System
Humans are not perfect, and neither are our users, because they're humans. Sooner or later, the popular "What I paid for vs What I got" scenario pops up and will need to be resolved. We've anticipated this and created a dispute resolution system. Whenever a user is dissatisfied with the quality of the product or service they received, they have the option to create a dispute and alert the system to their displeasure. This is reviewed by the system admin and refunds are issued where deserved.
An Intuitive Dashboard to Bring it all Together —
A dashboard is vital to the effective management of a fintech app, so the simpler and more intuitive it is, the better. One of the things I placed a high priority on while creating the admin dashboard was making sure it is uncluttered, simple and intuitive. The "Quick Actions" section of the dashboard home helped me achieve this. It helps the user easily access important features with minimal clicks, while the "Summary" section right above it gives a bird's eye view of the most important metrics being monitored by the company.
The dashboard gives the administrators access to and control over crucial components of the product such as user profiles, transactions, currency conversion rates, disputes and more. View more screens below.
A Landing Page Designed to Convert ✨
