Agrific: Simplifying agricultural e-commerce

Completion

July 2023

Industry

Blockchain

Tools

Figma, After Effects, Notion

Services

Research, Product & Web Design

Overview

Since the advent of the Internet, the eCommerce market has grown to become a flourishing market and one that has seen great successes like Jack Ma’s Alibaba, eBay, and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon as I write this. With these platforms, you can buy anything you need, from anywhere in the world, as they have created a perfect system that solves the problem that both buyers and sellers face, THE MARKET. As one looks more closely into the African eCommerce giants, Jumia & Konga come to mind. Since eBay and Alibaba have barriers when it comes to payment methods and foreign language barriers, they have made an eCommerce system specifically for Africans to use.

Still a long way to go

Everything has been solved in regards to creating an online marketplace, but what about the food market? Farmers who harvest large amounts of food and buyers who are interested in procuring raw materials such as cassava or coffee beans. China has to refrigerate Okro due to a shortage of food supply.

What We Are Aiming For

It is our goal to create a unique solution, based on these capabilities

Global market access

Find verified agricultural businesses around the world to buy or sell agro-commodities.

Assured Quality

Globally, agro-commodities are inspected, verified, tested, and certified by the world’s largest group of companies.

An end-to-end transaction

In one place, you will find everything you need for an effective transaction, including logistics and insurance.

Protecting your payments

We ensure sellers get their money in a short period of time after the transaction has been verified through our escrow service.

Problem Statement

The number of smallholder farms in Africa is estimated at 33 million, and those farms produce 70 percent of Africa’s food. The potential for increased food production and lower poverty in many countries can be increased by investing more in smallholder agriculture. According to this information, there are a lot of farm products that go to waste because there are no markets for these small-scale farmers and even those with large farms have trouble getting their products to market. Agrifics were born out of this need.

Market Research

Following an interview and a physical meeting with small and large farmers, as well as sellers of agricultural products, and some brainstorming, assessing their existing solutions. As a result, we set out to create an eCommerce solution that targets exclusively the underserved food market in Africa. We visited rural communities that produced large scales of agricultural products in Nigeria, and in AKoko Edo where plantains were harvested frequently, because of the lack of a market for these products, 80 percent of them went to waste. It helped us get a better understanding of the project and how we could narrow the roadmap.

As soon as the business goal was established, conducting extensive research through a UX lens was a bit different. I had to focus more on solutions that connect sellers, predominantly farmers, and buyers in a safe and secure space where they both can transact and also provide a delivery system for the products to be moved around the world. It means making the system dynamic for all stakeholders.

Issues with existing platforms

Lack of customer support Difficulty in navigating the platform Quality Assurance Packaging and Distribution

Through identifying this problem from communities like Reddit and product reviews done by users, I was able to identify what we need to create as a USP for our platform, as these problems need solving. I was struck by this comment from one buyer I interviewed:

Especially with agricultural products that are highly perishable, there is no guarantee you’ll receive what you see. Purchase a product, and when it’s delivered, the quality isn’t even half of what you expected

We were also curious about how we could resolve the quality assurance issue that occurs across all eCommerce platforms, including the heavyweights like Alibaba and Amazon. After synthesizing data from surveys, interviews, and market research, I developed a solution hypothesis for each identified problem area.

How can Agrific be used to solve quality assurance buyer problems

Quality assurance should be a functional feature of e-commerce platforms, but most of the time products are packaged before being picked up by the platforms’ delivery system. Consequently, the inspection process is bypassed, and the packages are sent directly to the recipient. Failure to realize that inspection is an important component of the delivery chain since if the buyer has a bad experience, they can hold the platform responsible and have to look for another platform. Agrific promises product packaging, which means the platform can verify the quality of products and ensure they are packaged correctly. Thus, the quality of products provided by vendors/sellers will improve.

E-commerce platform: how can we simplify it

According to Nigeria’s case study, people in the same demographic that is expected to be using the new platform find it difficult to navigate new platforms, yet are accustomed to Facebook and WhatsApp. As a result, I studied the user experience of these two platforms and compared it to those of the other eCommerce platforms, and I found that labeling is a key factor. Because icons and symbols are so popular, many platforms assume they will be understood easily. Despite this, older people who use the platform often have difficulty understanding the purpose of some buttons. In an attempt to make our platform easier to navigate, we label our content using labels.

Agrific Solution

There are factors to take into account when constructing a platform that makes it easier for users to use and trust because eCommerce platforms are guaranteed to have a lot of layers.

Securing Your Payments

Escrow provides a layer of security for making payments by buyers and receiving payments by sellers.

Tracking of delivery

Providing delivery updates for orders placed on the platform ensures the buyers that products will arrive at the stated time.

Verification of vendors

There are many platforms that lack this and make the platform vulnerable to scammers and thieves. Adding vendor profile verification as an additional layer of security for buyers. As a result, buyers can choose to patronize trusted vendors or use vendors who haven’t been verified on the platform.

A built-in search engine and catalog

Several products would be uploaded on the website and finding products of interest would be difficult for users. Therefore, we created a well-labeled catalog and grouping of products that start with the sellers uploading these products. Additionally, a superb search engine with the ability to filter results by name and other particular details.

Product Inventories

Taking stock of products, identifying products that are running out, and recategorizing products to improve search results are some of the benefits. Furthermore, it allows the admin to collect data about where the product should be picked up, its shelf life, as well as other important information.

Defining the Stakeholders

Although we expect our platform’s users to be engaged Ages 18–75 A self-employed individual Business owner Agricultural farmers From the Lower to the Upper Class

The farmers are primarily aged 45 and older, which makes it difficult to operate a sophisticated platform, so we worked on making the User Experience as friendly and easy to use as possible

Defining the Stakeholders

The product is segmented into two parts The seller The buyer

In terms of UI, both accounts have very similar features. However, buyers will only be able to make purchases from one account, and sellers will be able to make purchases as well. We can improve the user experience by keeping it simple. As a result, if there is a need for a seller to make a purchase, they must also create a buyer account.

Persona

In this early iteration, I focused on two types of users that make up the majority of the user base: Sellers and Buyers. I consolidated the user profiles I created two personas since the product is a buyer and seller platform collapsed into one. Using the UX research, the profiles below show how these roles affected usability and helped keep the design process user-centered:

Then I designed the information architecture, workflows, and user experiences for the system.

Information Architecture

In this document, the process flows for the system are intentionally omitted due to legal constraints.

Module Design System

The following questions always come to mind when I’m planning a digital product for a long-term project: “How long will it last?” and “Where will it be used?” Is it scalable?” and “Is it flexible?”?” I started by creating a comprehensive components library within Figma that would later be reflected in various parts of the app, for example, colors, typography, and setting the grid. Icons, buttons, form elements, error and empty states, and show cards and content cards were included. An 8 point grid system helped me achieve vertical rhythm. The platform was built to accommodate scalability so that components can work harmoniously with one another, and render well across various devices.

Agrific: Simplifying agricultural e-commerce

Completion

July 2023

Industry

Blockchain

Tools

Figma, After Effects, Notion

Services

Research, Product & Web Design

Overview

Since the advent of the Internet, the eCommerce market has grown to become a flourishing market and one that has seen great successes like Jack Ma’s Alibaba, eBay, and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon as I write this. With these platforms, you can buy anything you need, from anywhere in the world, as they have created a perfect system that solves the problem that both buyers and sellers face, THE MARKET. As one looks more closely into the African eCommerce giants, Jumia & Konga come to mind. Since eBay and Alibaba have barriers when it comes to payment methods and foreign language barriers, they have made an eCommerce system specifically for Africans to use.

Still a long way to go

Everything has been solved in regards to creating an online marketplace, but what about the food market? Farmers who harvest large amounts of food and buyers who are interested in procuring raw materials such as cassava or coffee beans. China has to refrigerate Okro due to a shortage of food supply.

What We Are Aiming For

It is our goal to create a unique solution, based on these capabilities

Global market access

Find verified agricultural businesses around the world to buy or sell agro-commodities.

Assured Quality

Globally, agro-commodities are inspected, verified, tested, and certified by the world’s largest group of companies.

An end-to-end transaction

In one place, you will find everything you need for an effective transaction, including logistics and insurance.

Protecting your payments

We ensure sellers get their money in a short period of time after the transaction has been verified through our escrow service.

Problem Statement

The number of smallholder farms in Africa is estimated at 33 million, and those farms produce 70 percent of Africa’s food. The potential for increased food production and lower poverty in many countries can be increased by investing more in smallholder agriculture. According to this information, there are a lot of farm products that go to waste because there are no markets for these small-scale farmers and even those with large farms have trouble getting their products to market. Agrifics were born out of this need.

Market Research

Following an interview and a physical meeting with small and large farmers, as well as sellers of agricultural products, and some brainstorming, assessing their existing solutions. As a result, we set out to create an eCommerce solution that targets exclusively the underserved food market in Africa. We visited rural communities that produced large scales of agricultural products in Nigeria, and in AKoko Edo where plantains were harvested frequently, because of the lack of a market for these products, 80 percent of them went to waste. It helped us get a better understanding of the project and how we could narrow the roadmap.

As soon as the business goal was established, conducting extensive research through a UX lens was a bit different. I had to focus more on solutions that connect sellers, predominantly farmers, and buyers in a safe and secure space where they both can transact and also provide a delivery system for the products to be moved around the world. It means making the system dynamic for all stakeholders.

Issues with existing platforms

Lack of customer support Difficulty in navigating the platform Quality Assurance Packaging and Distribution

Through identifying this problem from communities like Reddit and product reviews done by users, I was able to identify what we need to create as a USP for our platform, as these problems need solving. I was struck by this comment from one buyer I interviewed:

Especially with agricultural products that are highly perishable, there is no guarantee you’ll receive what you see. Purchase a product, and when it’s delivered, the quality isn’t even half of what you expected

We were also curious about how we could resolve the quality assurance issue that occurs across all eCommerce platforms, including the heavyweights like Alibaba and Amazon. After synthesizing data from surveys, interviews, and market research, I developed a solution hypothesis for each identified problem area.

How can Agrific be used to solve quality assurance buyer problems

Quality assurance should be a functional feature of e-commerce platforms, but most of the time products are packaged before being picked up by the platforms’ delivery system. Consequently, the inspection process is bypassed, and the packages are sent directly to the recipient. Failure to realize that inspection is an important component of the delivery chain since if the buyer has a bad experience, they can hold the platform responsible and have to look for another platform. Agrific promises product packaging, which means the platform can verify the quality of products and ensure they are packaged correctly. Thus, the quality of products provided by vendors/sellers will improve.

E-commerce platform: how can we simplify it

According to Nigeria’s case study, people in the same demographic that is expected to be using the new platform find it difficult to navigate new platforms, yet are accustomed to Facebook and WhatsApp. As a result, I studied the user experience of these two platforms and compared it to those of the other eCommerce platforms, and I found that labeling is a key factor. Because icons and symbols are so popular, many platforms assume they will be understood easily. Despite this, older people who use the platform often have difficulty understanding the purpose of some buttons. In an attempt to make our platform easier to navigate, we label our content using labels.

Agrific Solution

There are factors to take into account when constructing a platform that makes it easier for users to use and trust because eCommerce platforms are guaranteed to have a lot of layers.

Securing Your Payments

Escrow provides a layer of security for making payments by buyers and receiving payments by sellers.

Tracking of delivery

Providing delivery updates for orders placed on the platform ensures the buyers that products will arrive at the stated time.

Verification of vendors

There are many platforms that lack this and make the platform vulnerable to scammers and thieves. Adding vendor profile verification as an additional layer of security for buyers. As a result, buyers can choose to patronize trusted vendors or use vendors who haven’t been verified on the platform.

A built-in search engine and catalog

Several products would be uploaded on the website and finding products of interest would be difficult for users. Therefore, we created a well-labeled catalog and grouping of products that start with the sellers uploading these products. Additionally, a superb search engine with the ability to filter results by name and other particular details.

Product Inventories

Taking stock of products, identifying products that are running out, and recategorizing products to improve search results are some of the benefits. Furthermore, it allows the admin to collect data about where the product should be picked up, its shelf life, as well as other important information.

Defining the Stakeholders

Although we expect our platform’s users to be engaged Ages 18–75 A self-employed individual Business owner Agricultural farmers From the Lower to the Upper Class

The farmers are primarily aged 45 and older, which makes it difficult to operate a sophisticated platform, so we worked on making the User Experience as friendly and easy to use as possible

Defining the Stakeholders

The product is segmented into two parts The seller The buyer

In terms of UI, both accounts have very similar features. However, buyers will only be able to make purchases from one account, and sellers will be able to make purchases as well. We can improve the user experience by keeping it simple. As a result, if there is a need for a seller to make a purchase, they must also create a buyer account.

Persona

In this early iteration, I focused on two types of users that make up the majority of the user base: Sellers and Buyers. I consolidated the user profiles I created two personas since the product is a buyer and seller platform collapsed into one. Using the UX research, the profiles below show how these roles affected usability and helped keep the design process user-centered:

Then I designed the information architecture, workflows, and user experiences for the system.

Information Architecture

In this document, the process flows for the system are intentionally omitted due to legal constraints.

Module Design System

The following questions always come to mind when I’m planning a digital product for a long-term project: “How long will it last?” and “Where will it be used?” Is it scalable?” and “Is it flexible?”?” I started by creating a comprehensive components library within Figma that would later be reflected in various parts of the app, for example, colors, typography, and setting the grid. Icons, buttons, form elements, error and empty states, and show cards and content cards were included. An 8 point grid system helped me achieve vertical rhythm. The platform was built to accommodate scalability so that components can work harmoniously with one another, and render well across various devices.

Agrific: Simplifying agricultural e-commerce

Completion

July 2023

Industry

Blockchain

Tools

Figma, After Effects, Notion

Services

Research, Product & Web Design

Overview

Since the advent of the Internet, the eCommerce market has grown to become a flourishing market and one that has seen great successes like Jack Ma’s Alibaba, eBay, and Jeff Bezos’s Amazon as I write this. With these platforms, you can buy anything you need, from anywhere in the world, as they have created a perfect system that solves the problem that both buyers and sellers face, THE MARKET. As one looks more closely into the African eCommerce giants, Jumia & Konga come to mind. Since eBay and Alibaba have barriers when it comes to payment methods and foreign language barriers, they have made an eCommerce system specifically for Africans to use.

Still a long way to go

Everything has been solved in regards to creating an online marketplace, but what about the food market? Farmers who harvest large amounts of food and buyers who are interested in procuring raw materials such as cassava or coffee beans. China has to refrigerate Okro due to a shortage of food supply.

What We Are Aiming For

It is our goal to create a unique solution, based on these capabilities

Global market access

Find verified agricultural businesses around the world to buy or sell agro-commodities.

Assured Quality

Globally, agro-commodities are inspected, verified, tested, and certified by the world’s largest group of companies.

An end-to-end transaction

In one place, you will find everything you need for an effective transaction, including logistics and insurance.

Protecting your payments

We ensure sellers get their money in a short period of time after the transaction has been verified through our escrow service.

Problem Statement

The number of smallholder farms in Africa is estimated at 33 million, and those farms produce 70 percent of Africa’s food. The potential for increased food production and lower poverty in many countries can be increased by investing more in smallholder agriculture. According to this information, there are a lot of farm products that go to waste because there are no markets for these small-scale farmers and even those with large farms have trouble getting their products to market. Agrifics were born out of this need.

Market Research

Following an interview and a physical meeting with small and large farmers, as well as sellers of agricultural products, and some brainstorming, assessing their existing solutions. As a result, we set out to create an eCommerce solution that targets exclusively the underserved food market in Africa. We visited rural communities that produced large scales of agricultural products in Nigeria, and in AKoko Edo where plantains were harvested frequently, because of the lack of a market for these products, 80 percent of them went to waste. It helped us get a better understanding of the project and how we could narrow the roadmap.

As soon as the business goal was established, conducting extensive research through a UX lens was a bit different. I had to focus more on solutions that connect sellers, predominantly farmers, and buyers in a safe and secure space where they both can transact and also provide a delivery system for the products to be moved around the world. It means making the system dynamic for all stakeholders.

Issues with existing platforms

Lack of customer support Difficulty in navigating the platform Quality Assurance Packaging and Distribution

Through identifying this problem from communities like Reddit and product reviews done by users, I was able to identify what we need to create as a USP for our platform, as these problems need solving. I was struck by this comment from one buyer I interviewed:

Especially with agricultural products that are highly perishable, there is no guarantee you’ll receive what you see. Purchase a product, and when it’s delivered, the quality isn’t even half of what you expected

We were also curious about how we could resolve the quality assurance issue that occurs across all eCommerce platforms, including the heavyweights like Alibaba and Amazon. After synthesizing data from surveys, interviews, and market research, I developed a solution hypothesis for each identified problem area.

How can Agrific be used to solve quality assurance buyer problems

Quality assurance should be a functional feature of e-commerce platforms, but most of the time products are packaged before being picked up by the platforms’ delivery system. Consequently, the inspection process is bypassed, and the packages are sent directly to the recipient. Failure to realize that inspection is an important component of the delivery chain since if the buyer has a bad experience, they can hold the platform responsible and have to look for another platform. Agrific promises product packaging, which means the platform can verify the quality of products and ensure they are packaged correctly. Thus, the quality of products provided by vendors/sellers will improve.

E-commerce platform: how can we simplify it

According to Nigeria’s case study, people in the same demographic that is expected to be using the new platform find it difficult to navigate new platforms, yet are accustomed to Facebook and WhatsApp. As a result, I studied the user experience of these two platforms and compared it to those of the other eCommerce platforms, and I found that labeling is a key factor. Because icons and symbols are so popular, many platforms assume they will be understood easily. Despite this, older people who use the platform often have difficulty understanding the purpose of some buttons. In an attempt to make our platform easier to navigate, we label our content using labels.

Agrific Solution

There are factors to take into account when constructing a platform that makes it easier for users to use and trust because eCommerce platforms are guaranteed to have a lot of layers.

Securing Your Payments

Escrow provides a layer of security for making payments by buyers and receiving payments by sellers.

Tracking of delivery

Providing delivery updates for orders placed on the platform ensures the buyers that products will arrive at the stated time.

Verification of vendors

There are many platforms that lack this and make the platform vulnerable to scammers and thieves. Adding vendor profile verification as an additional layer of security for buyers. As a result, buyers can choose to patronize trusted vendors or use vendors who haven’t been verified on the platform.

A built-in search engine and catalog

Several products would be uploaded on the website and finding products of interest would be difficult for users. Therefore, we created a well-labeled catalog and grouping of products that start with the sellers uploading these products. Additionally, a superb search engine with the ability to filter results by name and other particular details.

Product Inventories

Taking stock of products, identifying products that are running out, and recategorizing products to improve search results are some of the benefits. Furthermore, it allows the admin to collect data about where the product should be picked up, its shelf life, as well as other important information.

Defining the Stakeholders

Although we expect our platform’s users to be engaged Ages 18–75 A self-employed individual Business owner Agricultural farmers From the Lower to the Upper Class

The farmers are primarily aged 45 and older, which makes it difficult to operate a sophisticated platform, so we worked on making the User Experience as friendly and easy to use as possible

Defining the Stakeholders

The product is segmented into two parts The seller The buyer

In terms of UI, both accounts have very similar features. However, buyers will only be able to make purchases from one account, and sellers will be able to make purchases as well. We can improve the user experience by keeping it simple. As a result, if there is a need for a seller to make a purchase, they must also create a buyer account.

Persona

In this early iteration, I focused on two types of users that make up the majority of the user base: Sellers and Buyers. I consolidated the user profiles I created two personas since the product is a buyer and seller platform collapsed into one. Using the UX research, the profiles below show how these roles affected usability and helped keep the design process user-centered:

Then I designed the information architecture, workflows, and user experiences for the system.

Information Architecture

In this document, the process flows for the system are intentionally omitted due to legal constraints.

Module Design System

The following questions always come to mind when I’m planning a digital product for a long-term project: “How long will it last?” and “Where will it be used?” Is it scalable?” and “Is it flexible?”?” I started by creating a comprehensive components library within Figma that would later be reflected in various parts of the app, for example, colors, typography, and setting the grid. Icons, buttons, form elements, error and empty states, and show cards and content cards were included. An 8 point grid system helped me achieve vertical rhythm. The platform was built to accommodate scalability so that components can work harmoniously with one another, and render well across various devices.