Vel’Afrika.
A self-directed product strategy exercise. I diagnosed a stalled marketplace funnel and prioritized a quarter of bets to grow African exports abroad.
Solo practice exercise
PM strategy case study
12-week roadmap
Discovery, prioritization, roadmap
A global marketplace connecting 1,200 African artisans with international buyers through a catalog of 6,000 handcrafted products, attracting 67,000 monthly visitors and generating 17,000 monthly sales.
How might Vel’Afrika increase APGA (African Products Going Abroad) by 20% next quarter while delivering a better shopping experience for global customers?
Current state
Sales have grown 3% month over month for nine consecutive months, but customer growth has plateaued at 11,500 buyers per month. I read that as an opportunity to improve acquisition and purchase behavior.
Hover or focus a stage to see the detail behind the number.
Hover or focus a point to see the projected sales figure.
Research & insights
More buyers
Customer growth. Known: 11,500 monthly.
- Improve discovery
- Mobile conversion
- Checkout completion
More products
Basket size. Unknown: items per order.
- Bundles and add-ons
- Recommendations
- Cross-sell beads
More APGA
International mix. Unknown: % shipped abroad.
- Shipping confidence
- Delivery ETA clarity
- Country targeting
Mobile first
60% of traffic. Mobile UX is the highest leverage area on the site.
Demand concentration
Beads account for 34K monthly visits, making it the highest demanded product.
Growth plateau
Sales grow 3% month over month, but customer growth remains flat at 11,500.
Global marketplace
1,200 suppliers create product diversity but also operational complexity.
Fast delivery matters
The business objective emphasizes products that can reach customers quickly.
Large catalog
6,000 products increases discovery complexity and search friction.
External benchmarks
I found that external marketplace patterns consistently point toward improving checkout conversion, basket size, and international purchasing confidence as the highest-leverage opportunities for increasing APGA.
How I think about this
What’s been done before? My research: I looked at how nine other marketplaces solved the same problems, cross-border shipping, checkout, bundling, and trust, then scored each pattern against Vel’Afrika’s own numbers to see what would actually move APGA.
International checkout optimization
- Mobile UX
- Payment methods
- Checkout localization
Basket expansion
- Bundles
- Recommendations
- Cross-sell
International purchase confidence
- Shipping transparency
- ETA clarity
- Duties/taxes visibility
Showing full landed cost and ETA upfront will cut abandonment.
Up to 13x conversion in lanes; ~40% cart to checkout lift.
Bundling complementary beads will grow basket size and APGA.
Marketplace bundles raise order value and items per order.
Simplifying international mobile checkout will lift completion and APGA.
Cases: ~17% higher checkout conversion, 20 to 55% more orders.
Better routing and acceptance for international cards will lift APGA.
TEI: ~2 to 3 pt acceptance uplift, fewer retries.
Familiar wallets for key countries will lift completion.
Cases: PayPal and local methods lift cross border conversion.
Localized checkout for priority countries will lift conversion.
Shopify Markets and ASOS lift intl conversion with localization.
Better filters and search will lift adds to cart and APGA.
Large marketplaces use search and filters to lift conversion.
Standardizing export for a bead subset will lift successful orders.
ANKA cross border model and IFC backing show feasibility.
Strong artisan stories will modestly lift conversion and repeat.
Novica scale built on stories; Airbnb relies on storytelling.
Cross border shipping transparency (DDP)
10.0Showing full landed cost and ETA upfront will cut abandonment.
Up to 13x conversion in lanes; ~40% cart to checkout lift.
+5 to 10% targeted; ~+804 units
Product bundling and recommendations
9.6Bundling complementary beads will grow basket size and APGA.
Marketplace bundles raise order value and items per order.
≈+5% (~+680 units) via +0.1 items
Mobile checkout optimization
8.0Simplifying international mobile checkout will lift completion and APGA.
Cases: ~17% higher checkout conversion, 20 to 55% more orders.
≈+5 to 8% (~+5.9%, ~+804 units)
Payment acceptance
6.4Better routing and acceptance for international cards will lift APGA.
TEI: ~2 to 3 pt acceptance uplift, fewer retries.
≈+3 to 6% (+400 to 800 units)
Local payment methods
5.4Familiar wallets for key countries will lift completion.
Cases: PayPal and local methods lift cross border conversion.
≈+2 to 4% (+270 to 540 units)
International checkout and localization
3.6Localized checkout for priority countries will lift conversion.
Shopify Markets and ASOS lift intl conversion with localization.
≈+2 to 4% on targeted countries
Marketplace discovery (search and filters)
1.8Better filters and search will lift adds to cart and APGA.
Large marketplaces use search and filters to lift conversion.
≈+2 to 4% if scaled; partial this quarter
Export logistics (lightweight)
1.2Standardizing export for a bead subset will lift successful orders.
ANKA cross border model and IFC backing show feasibility.
Long term +5 to 10%; small this quarter
Storytelling and trust
0.9Strong artisan stories will modestly lift conversion and repeat.
Novica scale built on stories; Airbnb relies on storytelling.
+1 to 2% longer term
E = Effort, C = Confidence, I = Expected business impact, A = Quarter APGA contribution, each scored 1 to 5. Priority score = (I × C × A) ÷ E, normalized to a 0 to 10 index where the strongest opportunity scores 10.
Opportunity hypotheses
From my research and external benchmarks, I identified eight opportunity hypotheses that could drive APGA growth next quarter, grouped into four themes.
Checkout
Mobile Checkout Optimization
Simplifying the international mobile checkout experience will increase checkout completion and APGA growth.
International Checkout & Localization
Localizing checkout by country will reduce friction and improve international conversion.
Payment
Local Payment Methods
Offering familiar local payment methods will increase buyer trust, checkout completion, and APGA growth.
Payment Acceptance Improvement
Optimizing payment acceptance will reduce failed payments and increase completed orders.
Discovery
Product Bundling & Recommendations
Curated bundles and recommendations will increase basket size and APGA growth.
Marketplace Discovery Enhancement
Better search and filtering will improve product discovery and increase conversion.
Trust
Shipping Transparency & DDP
Displaying duties, shipping costs, and ETA upfront will reduce abandonment and increase international conversion.
Storytelling & Trust Building
Rich artisan storytelling will strengthen buyer trust and improve conversion over time.
Our top priority opportunities focus on improving APGA through conversion, increasing basket size, and building international purchasing confidence.
Opportunity prioritization
I scored eight hypotheses on expected impact to APGA against effort to implement within the next three months.
Mobile Checkout Optimization
High APGA
Shipping Transparency & DDP
Highest APGA
Product Bundling & Recommendations
High APGA
Local Payment Methods
Medium APGA
Payment Acceptance Improvement
Medium APGA
Marketplace Discovery Enhancement
Low APGA
International Checkpoints & Localization
Low APGA
Storytelling & Trust Building
Lowest APGA
- 1
Mobile Checkout Optimization
Impact 5/5 · Effort Low
- 2
Shipping Transparency & DDP
Impact 5/5 · Effort Medium
- 3
Product Bundling & Recommendations
Impact 4/5 · Effort Low
- 4
Local Payment Methods
Impact 4/5 · Effort Low
I will focus on the top four opportunities that offer the highest APGA lift with achievable effort within one quarter.
Prioritized opportunities
Four validated opportunities with the highest APGA impact, lowest effort, and fastest twelve-week feedback.
Shipping Transparency & DDP
We hypothesize displaying duties, shipping costs, and ETA upfront will reduce abandonment and increase international conversion.
- Pilot landed cost pricing for Beads to one or two priority markets: US, plus UK or EU.
- Show a single all-in total, product plus shipping plus duties and taxes, with a clear delivery window before payment.
- Add a short reassurance line: no additional customs fees on delivery for this order.
- Run behind a feature flag and A/B test against the current ships-worldwide flow.
- Abandonment rate on shipping and cost
- APGA units from pilot markets
- International checkout completion rate
- Delivery success rate
- Support contacts related to shipping and duties
of shoppers abandon due to unexpected costs at checkout (Baymard Institute)
abandon when delivery is too slow or unclear (Baymard Institute)
higher conversion with DDP and landed cost solutions (Industry benchmarks)
- Items (Beads)
- $120.00
- Shipping
- $25.00
- Duties & Taxes
- $18.00
Estimated delivery: 6 to 10 business days
Hover or focus a phase to see what happens in it.
- Which carriers or partners can expose duties and ETA via API?
- Do we have code and origin data for top bead products?
- Which one or two destination countries should we start with?
Mobile Checkout Optimization
We hypothesize simplifying the international mobile checkout experience will increase checkout completion and APGA growth.
- Redesign the mobile checkout flow for international, logged-in buyers.
- Reduce the number of steps and fields with smart defaults and progressive disclosure.
- Optimize form inputs for mobile: auto-fill, address lookup, validation.
- Improve trust signals and error handling to reduce friction.
- A/B test the new flow versus the current experience.
- International mobile checkout completion rate
- Checkout step drop-off rate
- Average time to complete checkout
- APGA units generated from pilot markets
- A/B conversion uplift versus control
- Customer support contacts related to checkout issues
of Vel'Afrika traffic is from mobile, the largest opportunity for conversion
of shoppers abandon checkout because the process is too long or complicated
higher checkout completion observed after simplifying mobile checkout
Hover or focus a phase to see what happens in it.
- What is the largest mobile checkout drop-off point today?
- Can existing customer data be used to pre-fill checkout fields?
- Should guest checkout be included in the pilot, or should it focus on logged-in users?
- Which international markets should be prioritized first?
- Are there technical limitations within the current checkout architecture?
Product Bundling & Recommendations
We hypothesize curated bundles and recommendations will increase basket size and APGA growth.
- Introduce curated product bundles for the Beads category, Vel'Afrika's highest-traffic segment.
- Surface “Frequently bought together” recommendations on product pages and in cart.
- Offer bundle discounts or free shipping incentives to encourage multi-item purchases.
- Recommend complementary artisan products based on category affinity.
- Launch behind a feature flag and A/B test against the current experience.
- Average items per international order
- Bundle attach rate
- Average order value (AOV)
- APGA units generated from bundled purchases
- Bundle conversion rate versus control
- Revenue per visitor
monthly visits to Beads, the marketplace's largest category and fastest lever on APGA
higher average order value observed from recommendations and curated bundles across e-commerce
implementation complexity, a pilot can launch within a single sprint using existing catalog data
Hover or focus a phase to see what happens in it.
- Do we have sufficient purchase history to power recommendations, or should we begin with curated bundles?
- Should bundles be discounted or simply merchandised together?
- Which international markets should receive the pilot first?
- Should recommendations appear on product detail pages, cart, or both?
- How should inventory constraints affect bundle availability?
Local Payment Methods
We hypothesize offering familiar local payment methods will increase buyer trust, checkout completion, and APGA growth.
- Introduce trusted local payment methods for priority international markets: PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, M-Pesa where applicable.
- Dynamically surface payment options based on buyer location.
- Prioritize the most trusted payment methods at checkout.
- Improve payment messaging to reinforce security and buyer confidence.
- Launch behind a feature flag and A/B test against the existing payment experience.
- International payment completion rate
- Payment authorization success rate
- Checkout abandonment after payment selection
- APGA units generated from pilot markets
- Payment method adoption rate
- Revenue per international checkout
is a major purchase driver; international buyers are far more likely to complete checkout with familiar methods
of Kenyan online shoppers use M-Pesa as their preferred payment method
checkout conversion improvements observed when local payment methods are added
Hover or focus a phase to see what happens in it.
- Which international markets generate the highest checkout abandonment today?
- Which payment providers are already supported by the existing platform?
- Should we prioritize digital wallets or country-specific payment methods first?
- Are payout and settlement capabilities available for all target markets?
- How should fraud prevention and payment risk controls evolve alongside localization?
Roadmap
A Now, Next, Later view of how I design, test, measure, and scale the top four opportunities over the quarter. Click a card for the detail behind it.
Now
Weeks 1 to 4. Get the data, define scope, design each pilot.
Next
Weeks 5 to 8. Build behind feature flags, launch the pilots.
Later
Weeks 8 to 12. Measure every pilot, scale what works.
Team: Product Manager (me) throughout, with Backend, UX, Frontend, QA, Merchandising, Payments, and Operations partners rotating in per opportunity.
Success metrics, risks & scale decisions
Every opportunity begins as a controlled experiment. I scale only when measurable APGA improvements show up while guardrails stay healthy.
Shipping Transparency
International checkout completion rate (pilot markets)
- Shipping-step abandonment
- Shipping support contacts
- Successful international deliveries
- Refund rate
- Delivery exceptions
- Gross margin
- Scale if completion improves without increasing operational issues.
- Iterate if conversion improves but costs or delivery issues increase.
- Stop or narrow scope if no meaningful improvement is observed.
- Duty and shipping estimates may be inaccurate.
- Begin with a limited set of bead SKUs and one or two markets.
- If needed, launch shipping estimates first and introduce DDP later.
Mobile Checkout Optimization
Mobile checkout completion rate
- Checkout time
- Step abandonment
- Form validation errors
- Desktop conversion remains stable
- Mobile performance
- Fraud rate
- Scale if completion improves and checkout time decreases.
- Iterate if UX improves but performance declines.
- Roll back if completion remains unchanged or negative impacts emerge.
- Critical information may become hidden.
- Device-specific bugs may appear.
- Increased fraud risk from reduced friction.
- Start with a small experiment and expand gradually.
Product Bundling & Recommendations
Average items per order
- Bundle attach rate
- Average order value
- Recommendation click-through rate
- Conversion rate
- Return rate
- Gross margin
- Scale if basket size increases while conversion and margin remain healthy.
- Iterate if AOV improves but returns or abandonment increase.
- Retire if no measurable benefit is observed.
- Bundles may feel forced.
- Discounting could reduce margins.
- Larger bundles may increase returns.
- Start with a small number of curated bundles and refine.
Local Payment Methods (M-Pesa & Wallets)
Payment completion rate
- Payment method adoption
- Retry rate
- Checkout abandonment
- Fraud rate
- Processing cost
- Settlement time
- Scale if payment completion improves while fraud and costs remain acceptable.
- Iterate if adoption increases but operational costs rise.
- Pause expansion if meaningful improvement is not observed.
- PSP integrations may be unstable.
- Fraud patterns may change.
- Reconciliation may become more complex.
- Roll out by country using feature flags and expand after validating.
Open questions
What I still need to validate before I would commit engineering time.
Data & Analytics
- How is APGA calculated today?
- What is the current APGA baseline?
- How is APGA segmented by country and category?
- Where are the biggest funnel drop-offs today?
- What percentage of sales are international?
- Current mobile versus desktop conversion?
- Current basket size by category?
- Current payment failure rate?
Customer Research
- Rate of checkout abandonment.
- Which countries generate the most demand today?
- Which products are most commonly purchased together?
- Which payment methods do buyers request?
- What shipping concerns appear most often in support tickets?
- Which countries have the highest repeat purchase rate?
Platform & Engineering
- Do we already have carrier APIs for duties and ETA?
- Are HS codes available for all export products?
- Can checkout support feature flags and A/B testing?
- Can recommendations be configured without ML?
- Which PSPs already support local payment methods?
- Can payment methods be targeted by country?
Business & Operations
- Which countries should be prioritized first?
- Which bead SKUs are export-ready?
- What margin constraints exist on DDP pricing?
- What operational capacity exists for increased exports?
- How will customer support handle shipping questions?
- What legal or tax restrictions exist by market?
Business impact
If this plan executes as designed, here is what success looks like across product, customer, and business.
Product
- Validated experiments
- Prioritized solutions
- Clear roadmap for next quarter
Customer
- Easier international checkout
- Better payment options
- Higher trust in international delivery
- Larger baskets
Business
- Higher APGA
- Better marketplace utilization
- Stronger global demand for African products