Boost E-Commerce transactions via new payment methods
Investigate additional payment methods to boost transaction volume for an E-Commerce organisation.
Problem statements
You are a Product Lead at Company Z. You have been tasked with exploring supporting new payment methods to increase transaction volume. How would you approach this?
Task: How would you approach this?
Here's my implementation strategies:
Objective
This document aims to increase the transaction volume by supporting new payment methods on the Ecommerce website. After thorough research and investigation, I am convinced that incorporating Eftpos QR, Afterpay, and Cryptocurrency as additional payment options for buyers will contribute to a significant increase in transaction volume.
Assumptions
These assumptions act as a starting point for problem-solving and allow me to define the problem, consider various scenarios, and generate initial hypotheses.
Focus on boosting the transaction volume in Australia only.
No restrictions imposed by existing payment gateway providers at Company Z.
Success Metrics
Align product efforts with organisational goals, which provide data-driven insights for decision-making and facilitate accountability and prioritisation.
Goal
Metrics
Attract more buyers to Company Z by X% from the current growth.
Increase in web traffic in Australia after social media announces Company Z will support new payment method.
Minimise other factors which might affect the web traffic statistics (e.g. Promotions before festivals)
Attract more buyers to join Company Z by extra Y% from the current growth.
Increase new account registration with the first purchase using the new payment method to checkout.
Minimise other factors which might affect the statistics (e.g. If Afterpay runs promotions in 14 days the new registration + first purchase can be significantly increased)
Help buyers to pick their preferred payment method.
Reduce the time spent in the checkout page (Improve the overall checkout duration) by A%.
Increase company’s revenue by X%
Increase the number of orders checkout by the new payment method.
Increase the total order profit made from the new payment method.
Increase the proportion of the orders checkout by the new payment method among all orders.
Deliverables
Defining deliverables in the discovery process establishes clear objectives and expectations. It ensures that the entire team understands the scope, goals, and outcomes of the project.
Implementing one payment method should deliver the following. There might be other subproducts need to be packaged together depending on the nature of the payment method (e.g. regulations)
Enhanced ecommerce platform - Allow sellers to configure the newly integrated payment gateway
Enhanced ecommerce platform - Allow buyers to choose the new payment solution to checkout.
Payment method data analysis for Company Z internal stakeholders.
Payment method data analysis for sellers.
Seller’s revenue reimbursement mechanics.
Requirements
Important Note: Priority codes play a crucial role in organizing and prioritizing tasks, indicating the urgency level of a project. These codes, ranging from P0 to P4, help establish priorities, with P0 representing the highest urgency and P4 the lowest.
Additionally, it's imperative to gain a comprehensive understanding of the tasks required for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP), which constitutes the initial presentable release to product stakeholders.
Requirement
User Story
Priority (P0 - P4)
1
Payment Gateway integration (Backend)
“As a Company Z seller, I want the platform backend support checking out items via <payment gateway> so that my buyers can purchase via the new payment solution.”
Acceptance Criteria
Use the immediate payment flow as the diagram shown below.
Refer to the API documentation (https://developers.afterpay.com/docs/api/welcome%2Fgetting-started)
Test with sandbox (https://developers.afterpay.com/docs/api/api-development/test-environment)
P0
MVP
2
Merchant account setup
“As a Company Z seller, I want the platform to let me register new merchant account for <payment gateway> so that I allow my buyers to purchase via the new payment solution and the revenue will be imbused into my merchant account.”
Acceptance Criteria
Seller can opt out the registration even the mechanics is ready. That means buyers cannot checkout using the new payment solution when basket contains this partciular seller’s item.
Allow seller to enter existing merchant account information when they have registered one before.
Create a switch for sellers to enable/disable the <payment gateway> in the checkout process even they have the merchant account embeded.
Only allow one merchant account log in at one time.
P0
MVP
3
UI integration - Payment gateway checkout
“As a Company Z buyer, I want to check out my order via <payment gateway>.”
Acceptance Criteria
Implementation - Refer to the "Low Fidelity Wireframe" section bleow.
Review if there’s a hard restriction applied to the payment gateway (e.g. disable the payment solution when the item cost below AUD50, but don’t hide it.)
P1
MVP
4
UI integration - Payment gateway checkout
(Advanced seller’s options)
“As a Company Z seller, I want the platform let me enable/disable <payment gateway> for particular items, offering me greater flexibility in managing my products.”
Acceptance Criteria
Enable/disable <payment gateway> by price range in the merchant portal.
Enable/disable <payment gateway> by item category in the merchant portal.
P2
5
UI integration -
On-site messaging
“As the marketing manager in Company Z, please integrate the <payment gateway> marketing widget in the item page so it promotes the new payment solution.”
Acceptance Criteria
Refer to the screenshot below as an example.
On site messaging (https://developers.afterpay.com/docs/api/afterpay-messaging/getting-started-with-afterpay-on-site-messaging).
Placement style: Use Pay in 4, <square-placement>
P1
MVP
6
Business partner portal - review performance for the new payment
“As a Company Z seller, I want the platform to share information about the payment gateway that my buyers use for their payments. This will help me review their preferences and make informed decisions on enabling or disabling payment solutions to optimize my profitability.”
Acceptance Criteria
The report should have the following filters
Filter by payment method
Filter by price range
Filter by item category
Allow to neglect cancelled order
Use a pie chart to present so it shows the proportion among all successful orders.
P3
Presentation materials
To illustrate my systematic approach and logical reasoning, I've created the following PowerPoint presentation to outline my step-by-step method. This powerpoint includes:
Contextual overview of Company Z and its position in the international E-commerce industry
Trends and forecasts in E-commerce payment methodologies
Advantages of supporting diverse payment methods
Strategies aimed at boosting transaction volume
Implementation plan
Low Fidelity Wireframe
Additionally, I produce a series of low-fidelity wireframes using Balsamiq Wireframe, ensuring a clear design for the UI/UX team to evaluate and optimise, or for the software developer to follow during the implementation phase.
Reference
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1111233/payment-method-usage-transaction-volume-share-worldwide/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/348004/payment-method-usage-worldwide/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwkYybaranU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOWWbHxwehY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_gOcvbgm94