The Problem We Were Actually Solving
Our goal was to build a digital product platform that supported creators from across Africa. We wanted to enable them to sell their digital products, receive payments, and get access to analytics. Sounds straightforward, right? But when you're dealing with countries like mine, where a lot of the international payment gateways are blocked, it's not that simple.
Our problem was twofold. First, we were dealing with a country-specific restriction on international payments. Second, we were also dealing with a local payment ecosystem that was fragmented and unreliable. We had to find a solution that worked within these constraints.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We tried using Stripe, which is a great payment gateway, but unfortunately, it was blocked in our country. So, we turned to PayPal, which is supposed to be a global payment solution. But when we integrated PayPal into our platform, we quickly realized that it was not a viable option. PayPal's fees were exorbitant, and their integration process was clunky. We also encountered issues with their local payment processing, which was not reliable.
We then turned to other e-commerce platforms like Gumroad and Payhip, thinking that maybe they would be more compatible. But alas, they too had their own set of issues, including high fees and poor analytics.
The Architecture Decision
After months of trial and error, we decided to take a different approach. We built our own custom payment gateway using a combination of local payment processors and a microservices architecture. We chose to use a local payment processor because it allowed us to bypass the international restrictions and fees associated with platforms like PayPal. We then integrated our local payment processor with a microservices architecture, which gave us the flexibility to scale and adapt to changing market conditions.
Our custom payment gateway was a game-changer. It allowed us to process local payments quickly and reliably, and it also gave us the flexibility to add new payment methods as they became available. We also integrated our payment gateway with a robust analytics platform, which gave us the insights we needed to understand our creators' sales behavior.
What The Numbers Said After
After deploying our custom payment gateway, we saw a significant uptick in creator sales and revenue. Our analytics platform showed us that creators were able to sell more digital products, and they were also able to get paid more quickly. We also saw a reduction in transaction fees, which helped us to increase our revenue margins.
What I Would Do Differently
In hindsight, I would have done more research on the local payment ecosystem before choosing a payment gateway. I would have also considered building a custom payment gateway from the start, rather than trying to integrate with existing platforms. Finally, I would have invested more in our analytics platform, which would have given us even more insights into our creators' behavior.
Looking back, building a digital product platform for the African creator economy was not just about finding a payment solution that worked. It was about understanding the complexities of internationalization, the limitations of existing platforms, and the needs of our creators.
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