Wisy Marketplace
Wisy Marketplace was one the first of several projects I worked on while being the UX Designer at Wisy. As a startup, Wisy took many turns during its initial years, ranging from gamified experiences for businesses, a platform for employee engagement, and a data-collection platform for CPG’s. Wisy Marketplace’s objective was to help small and medium businesses in Panama have a digital presence, increase their foot traffic, and engage their customers.
The Team: 1 UX/UI Designer (me)
The Team at Wisy: 1 Product Manager, 1 UX/UI Designer (me), 4 Engineers (1 front-end, 3 back-end)
My Role: User research, UX/UI
Tools: Figma, Principle, Photoshop
Period: 2018-2020
The Challenge
In a rising competition for customers, larger Panamanian stores have gotten ahead of the game by implementing loyalty programs, online shopping, and their own mobile applications.
Meanwhile, small businesses are slowly being displaced.
(Source: Panamá América)
How can we give small businesses an advantage over the rising competition from big companies?
The Solution
Wisy’s goal is to give small businesses the opportunity to promote themselves by allowing them to have their own loyalty program and online store, in the form of a mobile app, without having to pay the large costs of technological development. With Wisy, small businesses can increase sales and reach a wider audience, enhance clients’ shopping experience, and turn new clients into recurring ones.
Who are we designing for?
Wisy’s Product Manager and I did guerrilla interviews and field studies to more than 20 small business owners and managers throughout Panama City. The businesses they owned included coffee shops, bars, restaurants, and small shops.
Based on our interviews, we saw that there was a pattern among typical small business owners.
Let’s communicate them through small business owner, Pablo:
What is the first time user experience?
From our interviews, we learned that business owners were less likely to stick with a platform if it requires constant input and maintenance. For the onboarding process, we made sure that the integration to the new platform was effortless through a step-by-step set up for the store and loyalty program, along with pre-determined fields that reduces the effort by users. By the end of the onboarding, users will have a full-fledged store and loyalty program that works automatically, without requiring continuous maintenance.
How do business managers engage with Wisy on a daily basis?
Analytics
Business owners are able to see an overview of their sales status, learn about their most popular selling days and products, and see the preference of their products by demographics. In the loyalty program analytics, they will see how many clients are engaging with their brand and what their interests are.
Store: Adding Products
Through the store, small businesses will reach a wider range of audience by having an extended online presence. The service will be free of cost until they make a sale.
To add a new product to the store, users simply need to add details about their product and a picture. The products will automatically be displayed in their published store. To edit or manage them, users simply need to tap on the item in the product list.
Store: Receiving an Order
When an order is received, business managers receive a push notification. Managers will mark the order as “completed” once the order is packed and ready to be picked up. This will send a notification back to the client who has placed the order.
Loyalty program: Adding Actions
With the loyalty program, small businesses can enhance their customers’ experience and directly engage with them. Business managers can add or edit actions (activities clients need to fulfill to earn points) and set their value in points. Actions include: Answer trivia, scan a QR Code at store, make a purchase in our online store, take a photo of a purchase receipt, review one of our products, take a selfie with one of our products, and share this experience with friends.
Loyalty Program: Adding and redeeming rewards
After setting the actions, managers can add rewards that clients will exchange with their points. Usually the value of the reward is proportional to the effort to fulfill the actions.
Key Takeaways
Wisy was well received among several small businesses across Panama, we continuously gathered feedback from them to continue improving the platform. Wisy as a platform was a powerful tool that allowed small businesses and events, such as the 2018 International Book Fair (pictured below), create excitement among its community. The social aspect of the platform made it highly attractive for users (both clients and businesses). Wisy’s interactive components (chat, actions, points, and rewards) could be applied to several scenarios, such as: employee engagement and small and large events while simultaneously collecting valuable data for clients, which is why it had to the potential to pivot to many directions.
