Challenge - Meet untapped customer needs in the US banking market by defining Product/Market Fit (P/MF), establishing a bold Low-Code technology strategy, and rapidly launching new digital banking services without compromising.
Coppel SA, a name synonymous with retail in Mexico (as the one of the largest department stores), has long understood the importance of catering to its customers' needs beyond just the products on its shelves. Customer understanding has driven the company to broadly expand its services, introducing a wide array of subsidiaries that aimed to offer new financial services targeting a need for greater financial inclusion of its customers and responding to change and emerging trends in the rapidly evolving financial services landscape of Mexico.
Coppel's journey into financial services began as an extension of its retail operations in Mexico. These services recognized that many of its customers lacked access to traditional banking services needed to make shopping more accessible and affordable, including in-store credit, installment payment plans, credit card and savings accounts. Coppel not only enhanced customer loyalty by providing these critical services, but they also tapped into a significant unmet need within the underbanked community as they grew into the sixth largest banking network in Mexico.
As Coppel's financial services gained traction, the company expanded its offerings to include personal loans, insurance products, and remittance services. After recognizing the underserved Mexican community in the U.S., Coppel identified a broader trend of under-served Latino communities across the country. This trend was evident not only in remittances but also in the need for a reliable banking option, which led to the creation of Coppel Access.
This blog post is about the power of understanding customers, finding new ways to address their needs, and adopting strategies that enable rapid and repeated optimization of P/MF. Coppel Access is on a mission to reshape the financial journey of the underbanked community in the US. This blog post is about telling the story of Coppel Access...
INITIAL P/MF: Coppel Access expands financial services for cross-border remittance to customers
In a strategic move to bolster its digital financial services, in late 2019 Grupo Coppel acquired Appriza Pay, which offered a robust platform for seamless, secure, and cost-effective cross-border transactions between the United States and Mexico. Grupo Coppel really understood their audience and saw that there was a growing stream of income from remittances. This allowed them to provide better foreign exchange rates for their customers, and provided an added benefit to their bank offering in Mexico. However, they started to note the growing need for a financial solution for those who were sending money from the US to Mexico; this population not only sent money to Mexico, but also would benefit from a Banking option that uniquely addressed this underbanked community.
For Coppel, acquiring Appriza Pay's technology was a natural extension of its commitment to meeting the needs of its core customer base. The acquisition was particularly strategic for Coppel to respond to rise in customer demand for more modern, integrated financial services. Incorporating Appriza Pay's advanced technology, enabled Coppel to offer a more competitive remittance services, strengthened its position in the financial services market and reinforce its reputation as a trusted, customer-centric company, committed to adapting to meet evolving customer needs.
DISRUPTION: Digital Wallets bring new capabilities and competitors to market
The advent of modern fintech companies like Revolut, PayPal, and Wise has significantly disrupted the traditional banking ecosystem. These digital banks and wallets offer a range of services that were once the exclusive domain of traditional banks, including international money transfers, multi-currency accounts, and seamless digital payments. These new entrants are not only more accessible but also provide a level of convenience, transparency, and cost-efficiency that traditional banks often struggle to match.
This shift has been particularly pronounced among the Mexican American community in the United States, a demographic that includes 62 million US Latinos, with 38% of them considered "underbanked," meaning they have no established banking relationship. Digital wallets are increasingly being adopted by underbanked Latino community due to ease of use and the ability to perform transactions, such as cross-border remittance, directly from a smartphone.
Coppel Access was uniquely tailored to address this working-class Latino audience. Unlike PayPal and Wise, which tend to cater to customers with an already established foundation in financial education and require ID verification that aligns with more well-traveled individuals, Coppel Access is tailored for the working-class Latino persona. Its approach is to provide accessible and reliable banking and remittance services that meet the unique needs of this community, without the barriers that traditional platforms often impose. This is what makes Coppel Access a true differentiator in the market.
P/MF OPTIMIZATION: Low-Code accelerates delivery of Digital Wallet without compromise
Coppel Access recognized the need to build its own Digital Wallet and partnered with Tachyon Solutions as strategic product advisor for our experience and expertise in enterprise low-code app dev and proven track record helping high-growth startups set innovative technology strategies and realize Product/Market Fit. Tachyon Solutions collaborated closely with Coppel Access to define product strategy, deliver a working proof-of-concept, and enable iterative development of minimum viable product (MVP) for new Digital Wallet. This partnership established processes and practices instrumental to accelerating time to market, as well as defined a low-code platform architecture providing flexibility and agility needed to ship continuous product improvements informed by product usage and feedback.
The engagement began with Tachyon Solutions conducting a Product/Market Fit (P/MF) workshop to define and optimize the product vision and strategy. This was followed by Tachyon Solutions assisting in defining the application architecture stack including Low-Code platform, services and tools along with the use of pre-built Banking as a Service (BaaS) components. This approach enabled Coppel Access to rapidly develop and iterate on their Digital Wallet application, creating seamless user journeys and compelling product offers. Building on a Low-code architecture was an ideal fit for Coppel Access because it significantly accelerated the time to market.
Tachyon Solutions also provided guidance and supplemental support on product management and user experience (UX) design. Collaborating closely with Coppel Access and Appriza Pay teams, Tachyon Solutions ensured that the project remained focused on MVP and efficiently prioritizing each sprint. They worked with a set of strategic technology vendors to perform a Proof of Concept (POC), integrating a Low-Code architecture with banking API services provided by a backend FinTech BaaS provider. This integration allowed for the rapid composition of best-in-class banking services, all backed by the trust and security of FDIC-insured accounts.
The initial Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for Coppel Access was built out in three months. This rapid development was facilitated by the Low-Code approach, which enabled Coppel Access to quickly evolve features for a broader launch. This rapid development approach was crucial to keep pace with larger FinTech competitors entering this space. The result was a robust and scalable digital banking solution that prepares Coppel Access to ramp up over time to accommodate over a million users, positioning it well to effectively serve the Mexican American community.
OUTCOME: Mobile Wallet seized market opportunity, delivering on-time with greater agility to continuously improve
"The launch of Coppel Access represents a significant milestone in our digital transformation journey while staying true to our core mission of delivering genuine financial solutions to the underserved Latin community in the USA," said Adrian Jaimes, CEO of Appriza Pay and Coppel Access. "By offering a modern digital platform for financial management, we are ensuring that Coppel remains both relevant and competitive in an ever-evolving landscape. This initiative not only addresses the practical needs of our customers but also promotes financial inclusion and equity for unbanked and underbanked communities in the U.S. It exemplifies how businesses can thrive by truly understanding their customers and adapting to industry shifts."
It was a privilege to have been part of the V1 launch of the Coppel Access Digital Wallet, and to help Coppel extend their decades of market leadership in product innovation and financial inclusion with their digital banking services. I feel fortunate to have been part of the fast-paced journey from ideation to production launch of an Enterprise Low-Code application with material customer impact in such a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market.
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