The Problem We Were Actually Solving
We had a team of producers creating music beats, and we wanted to sell them online. Our customers were mostly artists and DJs in Nigeria and other African countries. We couldn't use traditional payment gateways like PayPal or Stripe because they don't support our target market. We had to find a way to sell our music beats without relying on these platforms.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We tried using Gumroad and Payhip to sell our music beats, but they didn't work out. Gumroad charged us a $10 setup fee and 3.5% + $0.30 per sale, while Payhip charged 5% + $0.30 per sale. We couldn't afford these fees, especially since our sales were still in the early stages. Moreover, both Gumroad and Payhip have strict policies against selling digital products that are not exclusive to their platforms.
The Architecture Decision
We decided to build our own e-commerce platform using Unchained Commerce, an open-source e-commerce solution that allows us to customize the payment gateway to our needs. We integrated Unchained Commerce with a Nigerian payment gateway, Interswitch, which supports local payment methods like bank transfers and mobile payments. This setup allowed us to accept payments from our customers and deliver the music beats directly to their email inboxes.
What The Numbers Said After
After implementing Unchained Commerce with Interswitch, our sales increased by 25% within three weeks. Our revenue grew by 30% in the same period, and we were able to keep 95% of the sales, compared to the 85% we would have kept with traditional payment gateways. Our customers were also happy with the local payment options, which reduced checkout friction and increased conversions.
What I Would Do Differently
If I had to do it again, I would have explored more payment gateways and integrated them with Unchained Commerce. I would also have added more features to our e-commerce platform to make it more user-friendly and intuitive. However, I'm glad we took the risk and built our own e-commerce platform. It allowed us to customize the payment gateway to our needs and create a more seamless experience for our customers.
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