Tuccan: payments and credit that first-time users trust

85% of active users completed purchases and only 12% abandoned their cart.

Phone showing the leader account statement, with floating cards for the weekly closing balance, accumulated debt, credit limit use and weekly deposits.

TL;DR

Context
Tuccan, a community-based group-buying grocery platform for Colombian neighbourhoods (strata 2-4), a project inside Frubana. Local leaders centralised orders, managed distribution and collected payments.
Role
Senior Product Designer on the old page.
Outcome
85%of active users completed purchases12%cart abandonment

The problem

E-commerce was not new in Colombia, but adoption in lower strata was uneven. Neighbours organised purchases with WhatsApp groups and handwritten lists, and most community leaders had never completed an online transaction. At the same time, younger organic customers expected the smooth experience of global e-commerce.

This was not only a UX problem. In this model the leader handles other people’s money: collects payments, earns commissions and bonuses, and can buy on credit against a limit. If the leader did not understand or trust their balance, the marketplace stalled; if customers did not trust the app, they stayed on WhatsApp.

The question: how do we design one platform that feels natural to first-time digital users (leaders) and to tech-savvy customers, when one side is also managing money and credit?

My role

  • Owned: research (focus groups and interviews on online and offline shopping), the shopping flow, the leader dashboard and account statement, the role-based login and OTP flow, and UX testing sessions.
  • Beyond design: the product model around the leader (commissions, weekly bonus, credit limit, deposits) is visible in the screens.

Key decisions

WhatsApp-like patterns or standard e-commerce?

  • A conventional e-commerce catalogue

    Cards, filters, heavy imagery.

  • A compact list that mimics a WhatsApp catalogue

    Chosen

    Price and quantity front and centre.

Trade-off
The standard pattern is what organic users expect and is easier to scale visually; the WhatsApp pattern is more familiar to leaders but could feel plain to tech-savvy customers.
Choice
A space-optimised list with price and quantity front and centre, plus categories for quick navigation.
Why
Neighbours already treated WhatsApp as their catalogue and ordering tool, and both profiles abandoned at the first sign of clutter. Familiarity was the trust mechanism: “Tuccan taught me to design around familiarity. By adapting WhatsApp-like patterns, we built trust and adoption among users with little digital literacy.”
Home and catalogue. It shows the decision to use a compact, WhatsApp-like list with categories instead of a card-heavy storefront. Interface in Spanish; callouts translate the key labels.
  1. 1Colour-coded categories for quick navigation: Proteins, Fruits, Vegetables, Cleaning and more.
  2. 2A space-optimised product list with price and quantity front and centre.
  3. 3Product search.

One experience for both roles, or two products?

  • Two separate apps

  • One platform with role-based access

    Chosen

    Leaders and customers routed to tailored experiences.

Trade-off
Two apps are simpler per user but double the build and break the “leader is also a customer” reality; one platform needs a careful first login.
Choice
One ecosystem with role-based login that routes leaders and customers to tailored experiences.

Verify identity with OTP

  • Password only

  • OTP verification at account creation

    Chosen

    Adds a step for people new to digital flows.

Trade-off
OTP adds a step for people new to digital flows but protects an environment where leaders collect payments.
Choice
OTP at account creation, to build trust and reduce fraud.
Verification code step at account creation. It shows the deliberate extra step that protects an environment where leaders collect payments. Interface in Spanish; callouts translate the key labels.
  1. 1Four-digit verification code, sent to the user’s phone.
  2. 2Continue, shown inactive before a code is entered.
  3. 3Request a new code if it did not arrive.

Make the leader’s money legible

  • A simple orders list

  • A weekly financial statement

    Chosen

    Earnings, balance, debt, credit and deposits in one place.

Trade-off
A statement adds information density for users with low digital literacy.
Choice
A weekly account statement showing: earnings (daily and weekly bonus, with a progress bar showing how much more to sell to earn the weekly bonus), total sales and commissions, weekly balance (previous balance, credit sales, bonuses, deposits, closing balance), accumulated debt, credit limit used and available, and a list of deposits with a way to register one that is missing.
Why
Leaders needed weekly visibility of earnings and orders with easy access to past weeks, and the dashboard doubled as a practical tool while packing and distributing orders. A leader who can see where their balance comes from can trust it.

What we shipped

A minimal e-commerce app and website where groceries, price and quantity are front and centre; a leader dashboard consolidating weekly summaries, order history, payments, earnings and credit; and role-based login with OTP. The figures on these screens are mock-up data.

The leader’s weekly account statement. It shows the decision to make money legible: where the balance comes from, what is owed and how much credit is left. Interface in Spanish; callouts translate the key labels.
  1. 1Week selector, with the credit type for that week.
  2. 2Weekly earnings: daily and weekly bonus, with a progress bar showing how much more to sell to earn the weekly bonus.
  3. 3Weekly balance: previous balance, credit sales, bonuses, deposits and closing balance.
  4. 4Accumulated debt, and credit limit used and available.
  5. 5Deposits the leader has made.
Statement detail on desktop, with the deposits tab open. It shows the decision to let leaders check deposits and register one that is missing. Interface in Spanish; callouts translate the key labels.
  1. 1Week selector, with the credit type for each week.
  2. 2Credit limit: consumed and available.
  3. 3Deposits made, by date.
  4. 4A way to register a deposit that does not appear.

Results

  • Active users who completed purchases

    85%

  • Cart abandonment

    12%

  • Leaders checking the dashboard weekly

    80%

  • Users split: leaders / direct customers

    75 / 25

Success criteria set at the start: reduce cart abandonment, make sure leaders actively used their dashboard, and prove the model could scale across neighbourhoods with little digital literacy.

What I learned

  • Key takeaway: for first-time digital users, trust comes from familiarity, not novelty: reuse the tools people already trust (WhatsApp lists, a weekly statement) and show money clearly.
  • Watching leaders meet concepts like “shopping carts” for the first time showed that every extra click lost them.

Transferable to any product where non-expert users move money or credit: payments onboarding, identity verification, account statements and balance clarity, and fraud-aware flows in fintech and marketplaces.

Different industries, one kind of problem.

If yours has complex rules, non-technical users and a cost for getting it wrong, I’d like to talk.

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