June 3, 2019 at 14:24How we made a safe deal on Freelansim: give a choice, cut features, compare commissions
Hello, Habr!
My name is Anastasia, I am the product manager of Freelansim . A couple of days ago we talked about the introduction of a safe transaction . This is a service for freelancers and customers, thanks to which they can not worry about financial risks during work. With a safe transaction, the amount payable is debited from the customer’s card to a special account with our financial partner before starting work and transferred to the card to the contractor if it is successfully completed.
A secure transaction is not a new service on the market. Today I want to share with you the best practices from our internal analysis of existing solutions and tell you where, how and why we decided to move away from established market practices.
The scheme of operation of the Safe Deal on all freelance sites is approximately the same. The customer enters the card data on the service, the transaction amount is transferred to the account of the financial partner or frozen on the card. After the work is completed, the customer gives the command to the service about the transfer of funds to the freelancer. If something went wrong, the money may be returned to the customer by decision of the arbitration. The devil, as always, is in the details. We’ll talk about them.
Before introducing a safe deal, we analyzed a lot of competitors' decisions. The situation in which you need to make a service with dozens of existing analogues is, in fact, a winning one. We had something to compare our decision with and on whose mistakes to learn.
We identified for ourselves several important problem points during the analysis of competitors:
"Why not leave only safe transactions?" - we asked ourselves when we just started thinking about a new service. So did many competitors. And at first glance, for us this will turn out to be only positive consequences.
Firstly, we refuse orders that do not bring the company money (after all, the commission from simple transactions is not withdrawn).
Secondly, we nullify fraudulent transactions. Letters from Freelansim support team sometimes come from users who find themselves in difficult situations - for example, from freelancers who have not been paid by customers for work. And we regret that we can only block the fraudster’s account and explain to the victim how to contact the police. With a safe transaction, we can do the most important thing - to return the money for the order.
Thirdly, leaving only safe transactions, we solve the problem of cheating reviews. Now, in order to leave yourself feedback, you will need not only not to fall into the hands of our vigilant moderators, but also use two different cards and pay a commission.
Many companies did so by completely removing the functionality of simple transactions. But we decided that at the start we could not ignore the interests of that group of users who are not ready to work on a safe transaction. They may have good reasons for this. For example, an order with a value below the minimum amount with which you can choose a safe transaction. Or the repeated work of a freelancer and a customer who have long cooperated with each other and are confident in the safety of working together.
Therefore, we left the opportunity to choose the type of transaction - safe or simple. The risks of simple transactions will be incorporated in the rating system, which we will soon launch on Freelansim. Orders that have passed without a secure transaction will have less weight than orders with a safe transaction.
Chat is on almost any freelance platform - Russian-speaking or foreign. Communication of the parties to the transaction is an important component of the work. The desire of market players to embed the tool that is responsible for this communication directly into the platform itself is understandable.
We also wanted to. But, having assessed the risks, user needs, time and resources needed to implement the chat, they decided that we would start a safe transaction without it.
At the start, it was important for us to close only two stages in the communication of the freelancer with the customer. These are the first arrangements - the response of a freelancer and discussion of conditions. And the final “job delivery” is when the freelancer shows the customer the completed task. These steps should be fixed on site. In the event of a conflict, they will be the basis for resolving the dispute in favor of the customer or freelancer. Screenshots and photos from third-party services will not have weight, since they can always be faked.
At Freelansim, the first arrangements are recorded in the comments under the order and in a special document called “Working Conditions”. We will talk more about him in the next paragraph. The link to the finished work is stored in the personal account of the freelancer and the customer.
When placing an order on a freelance platform, customers most often describe the task in general terms. It’s good when the necessary technologies are indicated, mock-ups or even a ready-made technical task are attached. But often all this is missing and there are only two or three lines explaining what the idea of the project consists of, without details and with a promise to send the terms of reference later.
After communicating with the selected contractor, the very essence of the order may change. A professional can advise a better solution or simply agree on a new deadline or transaction amount. Communication with a potential contractor is something like the first consultation, with the help of which the customer clarifies and supplements his technical task. The order before this consultation and after are two different entities.
In order to fix this important stage with clarification of the task, we created the so-called “Working Conditions”. The customer fills out the conditions after choosing an executor. And the performer, in turn, begins work only after he agrees with them. We consider this document as the basis of the order - arbitration will appeal to it in the event of a conflict.
There are several points on which commissions differ on different freelance sites:
The requirements of players on the Russian market are now:
When deciding on our commission, we were guided by the following things:
We will continue to improve!
Have you tried secure transactions on other freelance sites? Tell us how it was: what did you like and seem comfortable, and what didn’t?
My name is Anastasia, I am the product manager of Freelansim . A couple of days ago we talked about the introduction of a safe transaction . This is a service for freelancers and customers, thanks to which they can not worry about financial risks during work. With a safe transaction, the amount payable is debited from the customer’s card to a special account with our financial partner before starting work and transferred to the card to the contractor if it is successfully completed.
A secure transaction is not a new service on the market. Today I want to share with you the best practices from our internal analysis of existing solutions and tell you where, how and why we decided to move away from established market practices.
The scheme of operation of the Safe Deal on all freelance sites is approximately the same. The customer enters the card data on the service, the transaction amount is transferred to the account of the financial partner or frozen on the card. After the work is completed, the customer gives the command to the service about the transfer of funds to the freelancer. If something went wrong, the money may be returned to the customer by decision of the arbitration. The devil, as always, is in the details. We’ll talk about them.
Before introducing a safe deal, we analyzed a lot of competitors' decisions. The situation in which you need to make a service with dozens of existing analogues is, in fact, a winning one. We had something to compare our decision with and on whose mistakes to learn.
We identified for ourselves several important problem points during the analysis of competitors:
- allowing freelancers and customers to work ONLY on a safe deal is a bad option;
- using chat inside freelance exchanges is often ineffective;
- to conclude an agreement between the freelancer and the customer, there is little information described in the order;
- The commission should be reasonable and transparent.
Why we left the opportunity to choose a simple transaction
"Why not leave only safe transactions?" - we asked ourselves when we just started thinking about a new service. So did many competitors. And at first glance, for us this will turn out to be only positive consequences.
Firstly, we refuse orders that do not bring the company money (after all, the commission from simple transactions is not withdrawn).
Secondly, we nullify fraudulent transactions. Letters from Freelansim support team sometimes come from users who find themselves in difficult situations - for example, from freelancers who have not been paid by customers for work. And we regret that we can only block the fraudster’s account and explain to the victim how to contact the police. With a safe transaction, we can do the most important thing - to return the money for the order.
Thirdly, leaving only safe transactions, we solve the problem of cheating reviews. Now, in order to leave yourself feedback, you will need not only not to fall into the hands of our vigilant moderators, but also use two different cards and pay a commission.
Many companies did so by completely removing the functionality of simple transactions. But we decided that at the start we could not ignore the interests of that group of users who are not ready to work on a safe transaction. They may have good reasons for this. For example, an order with a value below the minimum amount with which you can choose a safe transaction. Or the repeated work of a freelancer and a customer who have long cooperated with each other and are confident in the safety of working together.
Therefore, we left the opportunity to choose the type of transaction - safe or simple. The risks of simple transactions will be incorporated in the rating system, which we will soon launch on Freelansim. Orders that have passed without a secure transaction will have less weight than orders with a safe transaction.
Why at the start we refused to chat inside the service
Chat is on almost any freelance platform - Russian-speaking or foreign. Communication of the parties to the transaction is an important component of the work. The desire of market players to embed the tool that is responsible for this communication directly into the platform itself is understandable.
We also wanted to. But, having assessed the risks, user needs, time and resources needed to implement the chat, they decided that we would start a safe transaction without it.
At the start, it was important for us to close only two stages in the communication of the freelancer with the customer. These are the first arrangements - the response of a freelancer and discussion of conditions. And the final “job delivery” is when the freelancer shows the customer the completed task. These steps should be fixed on site. In the event of a conflict, they will be the basis for resolving the dispute in favor of the customer or freelancer. Screenshots and photos from third-party services will not have weight, since they can always be faked.
At Freelansim, the first arrangements are recorded in the comments under the order and in a special document called “Working Conditions”. We will talk more about him in the next paragraph. The link to the finished work is stored in the personal account of the freelancer and the customer.
Why we added a separate step with a description of the working conditions
When placing an order on a freelance platform, customers most often describe the task in general terms. It’s good when the necessary technologies are indicated, mock-ups or even a ready-made technical task are attached. But often all this is missing and there are only two or three lines explaining what the idea of the project consists of, without details and with a promise to send the terms of reference later.
After communicating with the selected contractor, the very essence of the order may change. A professional can advise a better solution or simply agree on a new deadline or transaction amount. Communication with a potential contractor is something like the first consultation, with the help of which the customer clarifies and supplements his technical task. The order before this consultation and after are two different entities.
In order to fix this important stage with clarification of the task, we created the so-called “Working Conditions”. The customer fills out the conditions after choosing an executor. And the performer, in turn, begins work only after he agrees with them. We consider this document as the basis of the order - arbitration will appeal to it in the event of a conflict.
How did we compare commissions
There are several points on which commissions differ on different freelance sites:
- The size. The most obvious point. Somewhere they remove 6% of the order amount, somewhere 20%.
- Additional fees. Often, in addition to the main commissions, additional sites are removed, for example, to withdraw funds by a freelancer.
- Dynamics. At some sites, the commission varies and depends on the amount of the order, at some it is constant.
- Who pays. The commission can be paid by the customer, freelancer, or both parties to the transaction.
- Minimum and maximum order amount. Order value with which the customer can choose a safe transaction.
The requirements of players on the Russian market are now:
| Player | The main commission (per transaction) | Who pays | Additional commission (for input / output) | Budget constraints | Withdrawal methods |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freelansim.ru | eleven% | customer | not | from 3000 rubles | Bank card |
| fl.ru | 15.9% -19.9% | customer | 13% PIT with a freelancer | from 1,000 rubles | Up to 15,000 rubles - on Yandex.Money; More than 15,000 rubles - on Yandex.Money or on a bank card. |
| freelance.ru | 6%, not less than 100 rubles | freelancer | not | from 500 to 30,000 rubles | Bank card |
| freelancehunt.com | 9% -10% | optionally | 0% -5% off freelancer | from 300 rubles | Bank cards, electronic wallets, mobile phone, VKontakte |
| Kwork | 5% -20% | freelancer | Commission for input and output from the customer and freelancer, depends on the chosen method | from 500 rubles | Qiwi, Webmoney, bank cards |
| Weblancer | 5% | optionally | 1-5% from the freelancer and 1% from the customer | PrivatBank card, Yandex.Money, Webmoney |
When deciding on our commission, we were guided by the following things:
- Pricing Transparency. Everything related to money should be simple and clear for a freelancer and a customer. We do not want the user to spend a lot of time digging into the “Help” section on the site’s website in order to understand how much money he will pay or get. We have one commission, it is constant, always charged to the customer. There are no additional fees for depositing or withdrawing funds.
- Any cards. Freelance is a job that is available to everyone, regardless of where you live. This is wonderful and we, for our part, want to maintain such limitlessness. Therefore, it is very important for us not to put restrictions on the methods of paying for the order and receiving earned funds. Because of this, by the way, we had to raise the commission a little from the level that we initially expected to - to cover bank cards issued in any countries.
- Reasonable commission. Yes, commissions of world leaders are at the level of 20%. But this indicator cannot yet be a guideline for companies operating in Russia. Our domestic freelance market is not yet so developed, there is a great mistrust of remote project specialists, and companies are afraid to work with freelancers. The commission must match the market.
What's next?
We will continue to improve!
Have you tried secure transactions on other freelance sites? Tell us how it was: what did you like and seem comfortable, and what didn’t?