Vendo by BEES

Challenge

Local businesses struggled to access the ability to sell digital products and needed a simple way to offer new digital products to their customers. The cash reliant businesses were not able to offer digital products to consumers because they were unbanked and had no access to digitize their money/businesses. The challenge was to design a platform that enabled easy onboarding and seamless digital product sales for small merchants that were not tech savvy and were reliant on a cash based ecosystem.

Solution

We built Vendo, a mobile app platform that allowed local businesses to quickly sign up, select digital products, and start selling with minimal setup. The solution focused on intuitive UX, mobile-first design, and automated payouts. The app was built with the Anheuser-Busch InBev physical cash pickup process to allow for easy cash payments from app users.

After the user was able to purchase digital credits via Vendo, the user essentially converted cash to digital credits which they were able to then subsequently use to purchase digital products from the business. The app was built with the Anheuser-Busch InBev physical cash pickup process to allow for easy cash payments from app users. After the user was able to purchase digital credits via Vendo, the user essentially converted cash to digital credits which they were able to then subsequently use to sell digital products to consumers that entered their local business. This simple change resulted in the local business increasing local foot traffic and sales. This was a win-win for the local businesses and consumers because it filled a gap in the market and enabled the local businesses to offer digital products to their customers with minimal effort.

Process & Insights

• Interviewed 15+ local merchants to understand pain points and digital readiness.
• Prototyped onboarding flows and tested with real users for feedback.
• Iterated on product catalog UI to maximize discoverability and conversion.
• Launched MVP in 3 months, resulting in 50+ businesses onboarded in the first quarter.