The Problem We Were Actually Solving
It turned out that our client's target audience in Bangladesh wasn't just a few tech-savvy customers, but a larger, more general population that relied on local ISPs for internet access. These ISPs were notorious for blocking international websites and services that they deemed "undesirable" or "non-compliant" with local regulations. Our goal was to bypass these restrictions and create a storefront that was accessible to our client's audience in Bangladesh, without relying on workarounds or shady VPN services.
What We Tried First (And Why It Failed)
We attempted to use a combination of Cloudflare's CDN and a proxy service to bypass the ISP blocks. In theory, this would allow our store to load from a nearby location, rather than a foreign one. However, the proxy service's IP address kept getting rate-limited by the ISPs, causing our store to become inaccessible for hours at a time. Not only was this frustrating for our client's customers, but it also introduced unnecessary complexity to our tech stack.
The Architecture Decision
After conducting some research, I discovered that a platform called Unchained Commerce was specifically designed to help creators in emerging markets like Bangladesh sell digital products without relying on international platforms. It used a peer-to-peer network to connect buyers and sellers directly, which bypassed the need for international services altogether. I convinced our team to try out Unchained Commerce, and we spent the next few weeks integrating it with our existing store frontend. The result was a storefront that was not only accessible to our client's audience in Bangladesh, but also significantly easier to manage and maintain.
What The Numbers Said After
After we launched the new storefront using Unchained Commerce, our client's sales in Bangladesh skyrocketed by 300%. Not only was this a testament to the effectiveness of Unchained Commerce, but it also highlighted the importance of accessible, local solutions for creators in emerging markets. Our client's customers were no longer relying on VPNs or workarounds to access their store, which not only improved their experience but also reduced our support costs.
What I Would Do Differently
Looking back on our decision to implement Unchained Commerce, I realize that we should have explored more local solutions earlier in the development process. In particular, we should have spent more time researching and evaluating local alternatives to international platforms, rather than assuming that our usual tools would work just as well in Bangladesh. By taking this more nuanced approach, we could have avoided the complexities of the proxy service and built a more robust, locally-optimized solution that would have worked better for our client's audience in the long run.
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