Olobam Fashion & Fabric
From a 2018 idea to a live global marketplace — the full story of how Olobam was researched, designed, built and launched.
From a 2018 idea to a live global marketplace — the full story of how Olobam was researched, designed, built and launched.
In 2018, Infinite Analytics identified a clear problem in the fashion industry: talented designers and small fashion businesses had no affordable, dedicated digital platform to advertise what they make.
Fashion businesses were juggling three to eight platforms at once — Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok, Jumia, Konga, influencer campaigns — each with its own interface, pricing and audience. Managing them was exhausting, and the results were inconsistent.
Existing marketplaces charged between 12,000 and 112,000 NGN per month for advertising. For a small fashion business just starting out, that was out of reach.
In Nigeria, custom-made clothing is the norm, not the exception. Most people depend on one or two trusted fashion designers for years — yet finding a reliable designer still happened almost entirely through word of mouth.
Research also revealed that 4 in 10 items bought online are returned due to wrong sizing — a problem that custom-made clothing solves naturally. There was a sustainability case here too.
Before a single screen was designed, Infinite Analytics conducted structured qualitative research in Lagos — interviewing real businesses and real shoppers to understand what they actually needed.
12 consumers and 9 business owners across Lagos. Each session ran 25 minutes, covering real shopping habits, pain points, platform preferences and willingness to pay.
Deep dives into Jumia and Jiji revealed what users valued (delivery reliability, quality assurance) and where the gaps were (cluttered UX, high costs, weak analytics).
Research produced grounded personas, not assumptions. The primary business persona wanted one clean platform — "just my items, not a busy marketplace." That principle shaped every design decision.
“I want to be able to post my designs and have people communicate with me — my store should show just my items.”
Fashion designer, Lagos — research participant“Managing multiple advertising sites is exhausting. I need something affordable that actually brings customers to me.”
Small business owner, Lagos — research participantBuilding Olobam wasn’t a straight line. It took years of research, design iteration, rebuilds and refinement to get to a product worth shipping.
2018
Infinite Analytics identifies the gap: fashion SMEs have no affordable, focused digital home. The concept — originally called Fashion and Fabric — begins to take shape as a marketplace connecting designers with buyers.
2020
The first formal product spec is written and UX work begins. Version 1 covers the full dual-account structure in Figma — personal user flows (register, store view, search, favourites, help) and business flows (register, post product, my store, messages, subscription). The foundations are there; now it needs to be tested against reality.
2021 – 2022
The design palette shifts to a cleaner, darker aesthetic. New feature flows are added: promoted item tags, product and shop filter screens, report post functionality, a like/save system, and an expanded business home screen. The “Fashion & Fabric” logo is iterated across multiple lockups. The product is growing in scope.
2022 – 2023
The most comprehensive design phase. Structured qualitative research with 21 participants reshapes the product scope. The Olobam name and identity debuts on the login screen. The Figma file grows to hundreds of screens: a multi-step account sign-up flow, a complete location hierarchy (state → LGA → suburb), tailor-for-hire screens, analytics dashboards for designers, full error state coverage (404, 503 and beyond), and detailed message reporting flows. Both personal and designer account experiences are fully specified.
2024
Fashion and Fabric formally becomes Olobam Fashion & Fabric. The full brand identity is finalised: logo, icon, colour system and tone of voice. Version 4 — the production build — is engineered in React Native with a Supabase backend, implementing worldwide location support, a hierarchical home feed, real-time messaging and App Store submission flows.
2025 — Live
Olobam is live on the App Store and Google Play. The app supports worldwide locations, hierarchical discovery feeds, safe in-app messaging, business storefronts, product listings, and more — with ongoing updates shipping regularly.
Each version of Olobam reflected a deeper understanding of users, sharper product thinking, and a raising of the bar on execution quality.
Core dual-account structure established. Personal users: register, browse stores, search, favourites. Business users: register, post products, manage store, messages, subscription. Warm palette, foundational flows — the skeleton of the product.
Cleaner dark-toned visual system. Major new flows added: promoted item tags, product and shop filters, report post, like/save functionality, business home screen. Logo iterations explored. Feature breadth increases significantly.
Hundreds of screens. Olobam brand debuts. Multi-step sign-up, worldwide location hierarchy (state → LGA → suburb), tailor-for-hire flows, designer analytics dashboards, complete error state coverage (404, 503+), and detailed message reporting. Every edge case accounted for.
React Native + Supabase. All V3 flows engineered to production quality. Worldwide location support, hierarchical home feed, real-time messaging, App Store & Google Play reviewed and approved. Live at olobam.com and in both stores now.
Every feature was traced back to a real user need surfaced in research — nothing added for its own sake.
Sellers get their own branded page — not a listing buried in a busy marketplace. Business name, description, location, products and reviews, all in one place.
Buyers browse listings near them first, with worldwide location support and a hierarchical home feed that adapts to where they are.
Buyers and sellers communicate entirely within the app. Personal contact details are never exchanged — a core trust feature surfaced directly from user research.
Sellers post photos and videos of their work. Research was clear: visual quality and authenticity drive trust. The platform is built around rich imagery.
Buyers leave verified reviews with photos. The review system was a top request from both segments in research — the single biggest driver of trust on the platform.
A built-in reporting flow and admin controls keep the marketplace clean. Scam prevention and safety were recurring themes throughout user research.
The research surfaced a consistent theme: existing platforms felt overwhelming and impersonal. The design response was deliberate — individual storefronts instead of infinite scroll feeds, clear navigation, and a premium feel that small businesses could be proud to use.
The dual account model (business vs. personal) emerged from research showing that sellers and buyers needed fundamentally different experiences — not a one-size-fits-all interface.
No personal contact details exposed
All communication stays in-app. A direct response to safety concerns raised by participants on both sides of the marketplace.
Store pages, not just listings
Businesses wanted an online presence that felt like a real store — not a post mixed in with thousands of others. Each seller gets their own dedicated page.
Affordable, tiered pricing
The subscription model was benchmarked against what businesses actually told us they could afford — a fraction of what major platforms charged.
Olobam is an Infinite Analytics product — we owned every stage. That means the research informed the design, the design informed the build, and the build was tested against real user expectations before shipping.
We know what it takes to go from idea to App Store. Let’s talk about your product.
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