Breaking Down Barriers: Making Fintech Accessible to Small Businesses
Design Strategy
Product Design
UI/UX Design
Having established market leadership in Indonesia's payment gateway sector—primarily serving established businesses—Xendit identified a significant growth opportunity in the underserved MSME (Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise) market, which represents the largest segment of the regional business population.
My Role: I led the research initiative to understand this market and develop targeted product solutions and marketing strategies to successfully reach and serve MSME customers.
Challenge
MSMEs in Southeast Asia typically start as social media sellers (social sellers) before scaling to marketplaces or websites. Unlike Xendit's established customers, these merchants operated entirely manually - no websites, no systems, just Social Media orders and hand-written records.
I researched this underserved market to identify product opportunities for Xendit's expansion.
The biggest challenge is, all of these target customers have a gap in understanding basic knowledge of business knowledge, which blocks or intimidates them from exploring technology solutions.
Research
I conducted in-depth interviews and ethnographic research across Indonesia and the Philippines to understand MSME business practices and technology adoption patterns. Participants were categorised into four seller types - fully digitised, semi-digitised, marketplace-focused, and social sellers - based on their current technology usage.
Most interviews were conducted online, but I also flew to the Philippines for a week of in-person ethnographic research to understand local nuances firsthand, working with a local coordinator to recruit diverse participants. This mixed approach allowed me to gather both broad insights and deep cultural understanding across different markets.
Direction
After consolidating all insights, the research culminated in a critical question: How might we help 'social sellers' realise the potential benefits of using Xendit products by building their knowledge and confidence to adopt payment services?
Based on this research foundation, I developed a strategic recommendation to fundamentally reimagine how Xendit approaches this market segment. Rather than continuing with our previous introduction methods, the solution centres on a more friendly, comprehensive approach that aligns directly with merchant activity patterns and needs.
This user-centred direction prioritises education and empowerment, recognising that adoption barriers stem not from product limitations, but from knowledge gaps and confidence issues within the social seller community.
Design Outcomes
We developed an integrated product suite to simplify online selling for MSMEs, with all products pre-integrated with Xendit's payment gateway.
Xendit Storefront: A complete UI solution featuring product cataloguing with embedded checkout UX, supported by Xendit's payment gateway—eliminating the need for complex manual integration.
Mobile Store App: Helps social sellers accept payments by providing an app that generates on-demand Payment Links, streamlining payment acceptance across social platforms.
Multi-channel Inventory Sync: Enables customers to integrate all inventory across multiple online selling platforms from a single dashboard.
Supporting Ecosystem: We launched a dedicated microsite as an MSME-focused portal, designed to feel approachable rather than intimidating, demonstrating our commitment to small business success. Additionally, we established a Telegram community to foster ongoing support and connection within the Xendit MSME ecosystem.
Credit:
Xendit Regional Experince Team
Design Researcher:
Wigy R
Group Product Manager:
Dexter Zhuang
Product Managers:
Polar Halim
Andri Setiawan
Product Designer: Justin Leong