Overview
Gemtrade is a peer to peer marketplace for gem traders of South East Asia. The product aims to solve technological issues the local traders are facing in growing and marketing their business.
Team
Omar Hassan - Design and Research
Imam Hassan - Founder
Role
Solo designer.
- Research and define scope for MVP
- Wireframe
- Visual Design
- User testing
- Brand and marketing
The Gem industry for many reasons has evaded the tech boom or any meaningful digital transformation. Businesses in this sector, more or less have been operating the same close to a century. There are justifiable reasons why a technology-based solution didn't take off, especially in growth markets like South East Asia where internet and smartphones are still mid mass adoption.
Over the phone interviews
We scheduled Whatsapp calls with 5 traders to have conversations of the challenges they face and their behavior patterns of how they use tech products.
Guerrilla user research
Private WhatsApp group traders use to sell inventory and procure stones. I joined couple of these groups to be a fly on the wall and observe there interaction patterns.
1. Traders in Asian regions are multi-generational.
A substantial percentage of the gem traders, this has been their family business. Successive generations made an incremental expansion to the ongoing operation or at times nothing at all. Working with the network of traders their fathers and grandfathers accrued. Thus digital tools did not help them in any meaningful ways to add value to their current operation.
2. Value driven commerce
A core set of values such as trust, integrity, and reputation plays a critical role in how merchants choose to conduct their business. Social proof is valuable credential to conduct in these circles. There isn't any digital system in place that addresses this issue.
3. Millenial and Gen Z traders are willing to venture.
Traders who are starting out or within the age range of 18-35 have started adopting social media and marketplace platforms to sell their gems. These traders are seeing tangible ROI for there efforts in photographing and posting their inventory online. The key platforms they use are Instagram and WeChat to connect with international traders. And Transferwise to fulfill transactions.
Portofolio management
Be able to store their inventory in a digital space to showcase to their clientele.
Network & social proof
Buyers look for ways to vet a potential seller before a transaction. These usually come in the form of recommendations.
Payments
Have a standardized way to process payments with international markets. Assess the taxes, shipping, customs payments they need would need to pay.
To gain a better understanding of a Gem trader and the tools they use for there business, we decided on employing the Jobs to be Done framework. We categorized our potential competitiors as primary, secondary and tertiary. This helped us focus our product and business decisions, in formulating the first iterations.
In our research one of the key issues traders were facing is the sourcing of gems. Buyers who had a specific requirement face challenges in tapping into the correct channels to get their orders fulfilled.
From a product standpoint, we chose to focusing on solving this issue by designing a feed interactions that serves up posts made by sellers that resonate with buyer preferences. A ubiquitous search functionality to comb through Gem listings, requests and professionals.
The primary problem a marketplace needs to solve is the facilitation of trade. The transfer of goods from the ownership of one party to the other upon the agreement of a set amount of monetary value.There were many challenges that were more than product challenges in when trying to create a system of trade for Gem merchants
First of all the supply chain is rather complicated and extensive. A gem goes through multiple phases, owners and borders before it gets place into a piece of jewelry and finally onto the necks or hands of a consumer. As a platform we had to make sure that the product we build accelerates, contributes and alleviates stress at every phase and to every stakeholder.
The greater number of challenges that we faced were at the logistical end of getting a Gem from point A to point B. Given the nature of a gem being mined from the sovereign land of a nation, countries tend to have string rules placed on how the trade could happen. Most of it is to protect the interest of consumers and reduce environmental exploitation.
For the time being we focused on the product challenges of how we can make the experience of sourcing a gem more accessible to buyers and sellers. The KPI that was driving this initiative was measured by how many of these gems be it rough (raw stone) or polished (final product) is posted in the platform and how many links were generated from the platform is sent out to other communication platforms (Whatsapp, iMessage, Messenger Etc.)
A typical deal flow could be summarized into these three steps:
In our ethnographic research we found that 80% of the traders do not have a digital presence. A greater majority of these traders have spent $0 on digital infrastructure (domains/website) nor digital advertisement.
But the trend we saw is that the younger traders are aware to the need of a digital outlet for their business. Prospective clients look for digital presences as a form of credential to make sure that sellers are legitimate.
With link sharing feature the platform allows sellers gain the ability to have a digital showcase of their inventory. Through this feature users gain the ability to bridge the digital divide and have a broader access of customers.
Focusing on our vertical of inspiring trust for customers, we designed a vetting process to ensure that credentialed buyers and sellers obtain a seal of verification from the platform.
As incentives for customers to par take in the verification process, we offered them premium features. Features that were designed around deriving the best value for their time spent within the platform.
Be it a business business problem, UX problem or a simply choice of aesthetic; all those decisions were made through the lens of those two values.
For the product to be successful and adopted en masse, strict adherence for that ethos was non-negotiable.
Security
Familiar
Foundations
Components
