Loystar: Unified E-commerce Platform for Small Businesses
An all-in-one platform integrating POS, loyalty programs, and analytics for streamlined business management
- E-commerce
- POS System
- Loyalty Program
Overview
Running a small business often means juggling multiple tools and processes: managing sales, customer loyalty, and order fulfillment. Small businesses face challenges with fragmented tools that don‘t communicate well with each other, complex loyalty programs that require significant effort to set up, and a lack of actionable insights from their data.
Many business owners, especially those in retail or food services, also need to manage appointments, bundled products, and complex payment scenarios—but existing platforms don‘t provide an easy-to-use, all-in-one solution. Loystar was born out of the need to simplify and centralize these business operations into a single, intuitive platform.
As the Product Designer, I was tasked with creating the UI/UX design for the Loystar platform, focusing on a unified dashboard that simplifies sales, loyalty management, and provides actionable insights.
Problem Statement
Small business owners face significant challenges with fragmented tools and complex systems. They need a unified platform that can handle sales, customer loyalty, and analytics in one place, while being powerful enough to provide deep insights but simple enough for users with limited time and technical expertise.
Key challenges included:
- Managing sales, loyalty, and analytics in separate systems
- Complex loyalty programs that are difficult to implement
- Lack of actionable insights from business data
- Need for flexible payment methods (cash, contactless, gift cards, loyalty points)
- Managing appointments and bundled products for service-based businesses
- Complex payment scenarios like split payments and back-dated sales
- Integration with existing tools like WooCommerce and Paystack
- Need for intuitive design that requires minimal training
Research & Discovery
I began with comprehensive user research to understand the real-world problems faced by small business owners. Through interviews, surveys, and competitive analysis, I identified key insights that would shape the design strategy.
Key Findings
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Simplicity Over Complexity
Business owners are time-poor and require a platform that is easy to use and doesn't need excessive training. The interface must be clean and straightforward.
- 📌
Flexible Payment UI
The interface needs to handle multiple payment methods seamlessly, from cash and contactless to gift cards and loyalty points, with intuitive cart management.
- 📌
Efficient Cart Management
Business owners need quick, intuitive ways to add products, apply discounts, and manage complex scenarios like split payments and back-dated sales.
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Service Business Workflows
Many businesses need appointment booking, bundled products, and specialized interfaces that existing platforms don't handle well.
Design Strategy
Based on the research insights, I focused on creating a unified dashboard with three main strategic goals: Unified Sales & Loyalty Workflow, Real-Time Data Visualization, and Customer-Centric UI. The strategy focused on creating an intuitive, user-friendly interface that helps business owners engage with their customers and run loyalty campaigns effortlessly.
- Intuitive Cart Management: Design seamless product addition, discount application, and cart modification workflows
- Flexible Payment Interface: Create intuitive UI for multiple payment methods and complex payment scenarios
- Unified Sales & Loyalty: Integrate sales processes with loyalty programs to make it effortless for business owners
- Service Business Workflows: Design specialized interfaces for appointment booking and bundled product management
- Clean, Fast UI: Ensure the interface is clutter-free and optimized for speed during busy periods
Design Process
I followed a structured design process that included ideation, wireframing, and high-fidelity UI design. The process involved creating a complete UI kit with defined visual style, typography, and component library to ensure a consistent, branded experience throughout the platform.
- Ideation & Wireframing: Sketching user flows and screen layouts to explore cart management, payment workflows, and loyalty integration
- Low-Fidelity Wireframes: Digital wireframes in Figma to map core user flows for adding products, applying discounts, and processing various payment methods
- High-Fidelity UI Design: Complete UI kit with visual style, color palette, typography, and component library
- Design System: Reusable components for buttons, cards, forms, payment interfaces, and cart management elements
Solutions
I designed a comprehensive e-commerce platform that integrates POS, loyalty programs, and appointment booking into a single dashboard. The solution focuses on creating a clean, modern, and friendly interface that empowers small business owners to manage their operations efficiently, with intuitive cart management and support for complex payment scenarios.
The POS system was redesigned to be clutter-free and speed-optimized, with intuitive cart management features. Business owners can easily add products, apply discounts, and manage cart items with single-tap actions. The interface supports barcode scanning, draft sales, and quick product search for efficient checkout processes.
The payment interface was designed to handle multiple payment methods seamlessly, including contactless, cash, instant transfer, debit card, invoice issuance, gift cards, and loyalty points. The UI supports complex scenarios like split payments, back-dated sales, and discount applications with intuitive controls and clear visual feedback.
View selected screens from the Loystar prototype to see how the design comes together. The prototype showcases the intuitive payment management interface.
Outcome & Impact
Loystar‘s unified platform is designed to empower small businesses to streamline their operations, from sales and customer management to loyalty programs and analytics. By providing an intuitive, all-in-one solution, Loystar helps business owners save time, reduce complexity, and increase customer loyalty.
This project taught me the importance of simplicity in design and how critical intuitive UI can be in helping users complete complex tasks efficiently. The platform successfully addresses the fragmentation challenges faced by small business owners while supporting the diverse needs of different business types through thoughtful interface design.
