<aside> 🔴 Razorpay released their problem statement. This is my take on the assignment.

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Problem Statement

WhatsApp is widely used for communication by people. Currently, the platform is expanding its payments business. Shopkeepers/ store owners have started using WhatsApp for Business to connect with customers better. But the main problems faced by them are-

1. Communication is manual and needs constant attention from the shop owner until the time the purchase is made.
2. The process, thus, ends up being a time consuming one.

You can find the complete problem statement **here.**

Stakeholder involved

Before starting, it is necessary to identify the key stakeholders that are involved in using the app. It is obvious that the solution should be focused on:

1. Customer/Buyer
2. Seller/Business Owner

Research

I conducted research to -

• Understand the behaviour of users and validate my hypotheses.
• Identify the factors that affect ordering online from a local business through a platform like WhatsApp business.
• To discover new problems if any, faced by the users.

Secondary Research

To understand “Social Commerce”, I looked into different applications that are very popular in India to buy from local businesses. I also read a few articles to learn more about the users’ patterns and behaviours.

Small Business Stories from India

Tier 2 and 3 Markets as the New Frontiers of Fashion E-Commerce

Competitive Analysis for WhatsApp Business

Key insights from the secondary research are-

• All platforms except Instagram, allow digital payments.
• No app (except Meesho) offers any cancellation policy.
• Users prefer to engage in value-based shopping.
• Users prefer using these apps in their native languages.

My hypotheses

On the basis of the secondary research, I hypothesized about the needs and frustrations of the customers and sellers while using the app (both customer and business side) myself.

Primary Research

I conducted a survey and talked to around 15 users to collect insights about their experience (Customer side). The link to the survey results can be found **here.** I also referred to this set of interviews conducted by Ghazala Haneef to understand the sellers’ pain points.

The main questions that I asked the consumers were:-

• Have you ever bought something from a local business?
• How did you buy from a local business? (follow up)
• What was your experience while buying from a local business?
• What problems did you face (if any)?
• How do you think these problems could have been solved?
• Suggest any possible features that the experience should involve.

The questions asked to the sellers were along the lines of-

• What kind of business do you own? (follow up)
• How have you been managing your business on WhatsApp?
• What are your thoughts on the order/appointment process on WhatsApp?
• What are your thoughts on the payment collection process on WhatsApp?

The full list of the questionnaire she used can be found here.

Key Insights

For Customer

• Users said that a trust factor is necessary to be established before buying from a local business. 🤯 (interesting insight).

<aside> 🔴 Some users also came across business owners asking for advance payment of the order. This added to their anxiety about ordering online.

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• 13/15 users agreed that the payment should be contactless (hypothesis validated).
• 13/15 users confirmed that they would want to keep updated about the status of delivery of the product (new insight).
• 7/15 users said that they were okay talking to a bot if it is personalized (new insight).
• Users would like to have an option of cancelling and exchanging a product (new insight).
• Almost all users preferred to have less conversation from the business (hypothesis validated).

For seller

• Sellers said that they do not have enough reach and exposure.
• They pointed out that it is difficult for them to keep track of clients’ communication.
• Most of the sellers confirmed that managing ordering and payments is difficult through WhatsApp.
• Most of the sellers pointed out that although the “labelling” system is present, keeping track of pending, important messages is difficult.
• Managing the inventory is also a difficult task on WhatsApp.

A typical user’s journey

Based on user interviews and secondary research, I came up with two user stories to empathize with the users better and work on framing a solution.

🧐Pain Points I will be solving for

For Customer-

1. Customers want to be able to trust a business before buying from them.
2. They want to have minimal/no conversation with the seller.
3. Given the Covid-19 scenario, they want to be able to make contactless payments.
4. They want to be constantly updated about their order status.
5. They want to be able to cancel or reorder.

For Sellers-

1. They want to simplify the process of adding products to the catalogue.
2. They want to keep track of important details of an order.
3. They want to maintain the availability status of a product.

Assumptions

I assume that-

1. Consumers and business owners are comfortable with English.
2. They are aware of the current interface of WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business respectively since WhatsApp is the 2nd most used app in the world.
3. It is possible to deliver the updates from a technical perspective.

Ideation

In the ideation phase, I brainstormed different key solution features that could potentially solve the issues.

User flow of customer

Introducing WhatsApp 2.0

1. Customer Side

Main Payment Flow (digital)

1. Discovering a business

In the Profile Screen of the Business Owner, I added “Ratings” to enforce trust within users. The rating is the average of the total ratings by users.

2. Pending/Completed Orders

2.1 Cancel/Reschedule Order