Designing an Experience for Capital Market in the GCC

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprises different nations such as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman, and they have formed a political and economic alliance to strengthen their relationship to combat inflation and other external economic problems.

Governments are taking various measures to encourage the growth of fintech and digital revolutions for banks, in May 2021, UAE launched the DIFC Innovation Hub, the region’s first ecosystem dedicated to bringing fintech and innovation communities together.

28% of the fintech and digital transformation projects fail, in the GCC area due to multiple factors, and one of them is their failure to understand the target audience, market need, and lack of technical skills.

Here are 3 steps we can enhance the delivery of digital transformation products for the capital market and reduce the risk of failure of startups by only enhancing the thinking process and the CX/UX delivery.

Understand the Target Audience

In the GCC areas, it is essential to know the target audience for digital financial products to know how they will benefit the citizens of the various GCC areas. For instance, the UAE has 92 percent internet penetration compared to KSA, which is 65 percent.

Nonetheless, 80 percent of these consumers from both nations prefer internet banking services using their computers, smartphones, and tablets instead of visiting the branches or calling service hotlines. Consequently, studies show that e-commerce penetration in Gulf markets is significant as 80–90 percent of respondents purchase products online but slow in terms of financial product sales as only 20–25 percent purchased them within the past year. These two scenarios showcase that reveals that the use of the Internet for commercial and financial reasons is evident in most of the GCC areas, meaning that Internet users are a target audience for financial digital products.

Consequently, the population in the GCC areas is constantly growing, with the population expected to reach approximately 68 million in 2048, which is a 30% increase from 2020. One possible reason is that while locals live in these GCC areas, foreigners relocate to these countries in search of greener pastures. A study by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic Affairs (UNDESA) indicated that were 35 million international migrants in the GCC countries, whereby 31% of these individuals were women.

The locals and immigrants are an essential audience because it is crucial to understand their needs when creating a sustainable financial digital product. For instance, immigrants need a reliable method to send money back to their families, meaning the digital financial product created must cater to their needs.

Alternatively, for the locals in the GCC areas, understanding their social and religious behaviors and practices can ensure that the developers know what their necessities are. For example, while most countries in the GCC areas have access to technology, gender social norms and religious laws, especially in Saudi Arabia, restrict the scanning of the national ID & facial recognition system for many security and social concerns and use Absher to verify the identity of the users.

Besides, since people from these GCC areas mostly speak Arabic, it is essential to take this effect into consideration on how the users are scanning the page (right to left instead of left to right) and how the UX writing experience is triggering the right emotions to the right users.

Being a be-lingual system is a must-have feature for market infiltration.

Understand the Market Needs

Before creating a product, it is essential to analyze what the people need to know if it will suit their demands to avoid unnecessary losses. In this case, the target audience for each GCC area has specific needs that need to be fulfilled. In cities like Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Riyad, changes in economic development have led to digital revolutions in various industries, especially the banking areas.

Today, Millions of people have embraced fully integrated mobile banking experiences, using smartphones, tablets, and wearables to do everything from buying e-commerce products and services, opening new accounts, and making payments.

However, from our study, many consumers admitted they would open more bank accounts if features such as loyalty programs and discounts were available on their mobiles. Furthermore, they acknowledged that if banks started offering accessible loan applications, such as through their phones, they would enjoy the bank’s services.

Alternatively, our research concluded that simplicity and security were critical vital features of digital banking. According to the consumers who had not engaged in digital banking, 40 to 50 percent said the primary obstacle was that the products are so complicated, while 30e percent said they were unaware of the digital banking resources.

Moreover, one-third of the participants argued that they are concerned about the security issues of digital banking. Therefore, banks need to realize that consumers value simplicity, reliable online platforms, and flexibility to provide them with high-quality digital services in this technological era.

Understand the Market and Challenges

When trying to understand the market, one must know the challenges to know what solutions to implement before releasing the product to the audience. To understand the challenges the digital banking industry is likely to encounter, one must analyze the staff and consumers as they are the primary stakeholders.

Because of global event challenges such as the Russian-Ukraine War, it was realized that banks globally had to have robust scenario planning and risk management strategies in place for continuous, seamless operations. Moreover, with the increasing need to use cryptocurrencies by the public, which is hardly regulated, banks continue to find ways to compete with this technology that users enjoy because of its benefits like anonymity and transparency.

According to the EY Global Board Risk Survey, 87 percent of the respondents ascertained that market disruptions have become increasingly frequent, while 83% ascertained that they have become impactful. The results from the survey reveal that consumers also know and are impacted by market disruptions, meaning that they believe that the different industries, including the banking sector, will find ways to solve them. One of the areas that banks need to focus on to avoid unintended challenges from affecting their productivity includes determining the aspects that cause economic volatility to avoid long-term consequences. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimates that global growth will be one percent lower than the frequent forecast, and inflation could increase by 2.5 percent because of aspects like geopolitical issues. In this case, companies must respond by supporting their clients, while banks should revisit economic scenarios to help ensure they account for rises in commodity and energy prices, inflation, and interest rates. They should pay attention to the vulnerable consumers who might be affected by the changes and sanctions to enable them to gain greater visibility.

Moreover, banks need to find new service models significantly because the demand is constantly changing. They need to question their services to know if they are fulfilling their client’s needs, know how to increase their security to mitigate money laundering activities, and analyze the market to be ready for the difficult times to safeguard their consumers from inflation or economic recessions.

Furthermore, banks need to employ a diverse workforce because each individual from various nations has talents and knows what the consumers of their respective countries needs. Besides, Banks should reassess how geopolitical events might impact employees wherever they reside. The strategy will help them formulate solutions to avoid these events to protect themselves from not achieving their goals. Banks can also use third parties to mitigate the effects of the problems they encounter to safeguard their customer’s interests. Before using this strategy, they should check if the reliance of the external provider matches their own business to avoid unnecessary losses.

Finally, banks should assess whether their workforce mobility strategies need amending to help ensure they employ the right consumers.

The technique can help determine what tools, teams, and data to achieve the desired workforce that focuses on the bank’s long-term goal, such as providing valuable and high-consumer services. Understand the Regulatory Necessities

While creating a financial digital product, it is essential that one understands the regulatory necessities of a country to avoid unintended conflicts with the government or regulatory bodies. Several national regulations expect personal contact for critical transactions, mainly for first-time consumers. In UAE and KSA (and more broadly in the GCC areas), stringent know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering rules require that banks verify identities in person.

GCC area has a big dependency on remittances which gave way for digital banks' market infiltration, such as Zand, Wio, and revolute which are also trying to get a chunk of the pie. those banks have seen a huge number of adoption with an increase of users moving from their conventional banks into the new era as the dependency on cash usage decreases day by day.

Digital banks like Wio, saw the hassle of businesses trying to open a bank account in the area and simplified it from a 3-month approval system to only 48H making a lot of startups and SMEs move their bank account to those digital banks.

Consequently, Emirates NBD, ADCB, FAB, KFH, Bobyan, and other traditional banks offer their consumers an online banking experience and simplified loan applications where they can engage in their transactions using their smartphones, or laptops keeping high user retention and conveying more safety and trust.

However, before doing so, they must present important documents such as the government-issued identity card and must receive an authentication code through SMS on their registered mobile number once the process is completed to avoid fraudulent incidences. Alternatively, in Middle East nations, several Fintech companies apply technology to financial sectors such as insurance, blockchain and cryptocurrency, digital banking, and investing, among others.

For example, BitOasis (UAE), with its headquarters in UAE, enables its users to conduct safe transactions using more than 60 cryptocurrencies. A report by Forbes Middle East reveals that it has 200,000 members and it generated a revenue of $1.7 billion, revealing that digital financial banking is really being embraced by people as long as it is safe. With this in mind, digital banks and Fintech companies have regulations that if the users follow, they can enjoy seamless banking.

Understanding The Technical Skill Sets Needed

Creating a digital financial product requires crucial technical skill sets to ensure it functions as needed. The three critical technical skills needed to create a successful financial digital product include services designer and researcher, UX experience designer, and UI & Design system capability. The services designer and researcher skills are vital because they allow the designers to formulate sustainable solutions and optimal experiences for customers in unique contexts and any service providers involved.

These designers can research the best software to use to make a product more appealing and reliable to the users, as their primary goal is ensuring that it is simple and efficient. Alternatively, the UX experience designer is important because it enables the designers to create products that offer meaningful experiences to their consumers.

This includes the process of acquiring and integrating the product in the market, branding, design, usability, and function. In most cases, the UX experience designer skill ensures that the product created is easy for the users to utilize, depending on its function. Finally, the UI & Design system capability skill is essential because while they are aspects of the UX design, it enables the designer to create a reliable and seamless user interface.

The designers must follow proper structure and guidelines to facilitate and minimize errors when designing a product. They must always refer to the best practices, and structured guidelines, based on eight grid systems, and align with the developers on a steady base for the project to be successful. Additionally, they can utilize the five Whys to use in the first phase of the design process, empathize, to gather information to know what problems the product being created will solve.

References

Al-Sharekh, A. (2017). GCC states and social media disruption in an era of transition. Global Policy Journal. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/27/04/2017/gcc-states-and-social-media-disruption-era-transition

Fintechnews Middle East. (2022, August 16). Top 10 fintech startups in the Middle East. Fintechnews Middle East. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://fintechnews.ae/12872/fintech/top-10-fintech-startups-in-the-middle-east/

International Labor Organization. (2020). Labour migration (Arab states). Labour Migration (Arab States). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.ilo.org/beirut/areasofwork/labour-migration/lang--en/index.htm#:~:text=Facts%20and%20figures,31%20per%20cent%20were%20women.

What are 5 whys? The Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/5-whys#:~:text=The%205%20Whys%20method%20is,causes%20and%20explore%20effective%20solutions.

What is service design? The Interaction Design Foundation. (2022). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/service-design

What is user experience (UX) design? The Interaction Design Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/ux-design