Islamic Zakat Saving Experience for Bank Syariah Indonesia

Background

Zakat is a religious obligation where eligible Muslims donate 2.5% of their wealth each year to those in need. In Indonesia, the potential for zakat is huge, around US$21 billion annually, but actual donations fall short. Many people leave it to the last minute, use informal channels, or get confused by the nisab (the minimum amount of wealth required to give zakat), which changes with gold prices.

With the rise of digital banking, zakat payments have become more accessible and transparent, leading to a 70% increase in online donations. However, most platforms still focus on one time payments, not long term saving.

Zakat Saving fills that gap by offering a dedicated savings account with features like (auto debit, automatic nisab checks, and easy transfers to verified zakat institutions), helping users plan and give more consistently.

Project Summary

Zakat Saving is a feature in the BYOND app that helps users save for their annual zakat. It lets them set up monthly auto debits into a special account and does a final nisab check at the end of the year to see if they need to give. It’s a simple way to stay prepared and manage zakat through digital banking, and it's the first feature of its kind offered by a digital bank in Indonesia.

Design Framework

The Challenge

A lot of users wanted to give zakat, but didn’t know where to start, or how to keep up throughout the year. There wasn’t a clear or easy way to prepare ahead. That’s what sparked the idea for Zakat Saving, a simple, built in feature to help users plan, save, and give zakat without the hassle.

This caused friction for users and became a missed opportunity for BSI to support them better. Here’s a breakdown of the main problems and how they could impact both users and the business:

Research & Insights

As we are building a zero-to-one zakat feature, we teamed up with the Product Manager to shape the research questions and overall approach.

While we are reviewing our methodologies, we realized that banking app features with focus on zakat are not commonly available. Thus we redefine our approach to not rely on benchmark, researching on Muslim users in working age (defined as 20-50 years old, across many backgrounds). Our approach consists of:

1. Initial Qualitative Interview

Direct sit downs, interviews with 10 sample users for 30 minutes each.

Objective:

• Map out users’ flow and thought process for overall zakat handling, both offline and online
• Learn what really matters to them when it comes to bringing zakat payments into BSI’s ecosystem
• Gather their pain points to help us build smoother, so we can design something that feels easier and more helpful than their current zakat experience

Some question samples that we asked out to participants:

2. Survey

This was followed by an online survey, which gathered responses from over 200 users.

Objective:

• Gain a wider, more data driven perspective on prospects of digitizing zakat payment
• Gather quick feedbacks on more users

Some question samples:

Synthesis Discussion with the Team

We then mapped out all the insights with the team to sort through everything.

Our finding summaries listed below:

These insights helped us shape a more complete zakat flow, one that feels easy to use, and matches what Indonesian users value, and still respects their religious values.

How might we help Bank Syariah Indonesia users save and pay their zakat, so they never miss a due date, face zero friction in the process, and feel confident knowing exactly where their zakat contributions are going?

We turned the challenge into a set of key user stories to help guide our focus and design decisions:

User Flow

We identified two major pain points: users have a hard time saving regularly for zakat, and many aren’t sure if they actually meet the nisab requirement.

To tackle this, we focused on making savings automatic and the nisab check easy to understand. From there, we started shaping the core user flows.

Zakat Savings Account Opening Flow

Zakat Payment Flow

1. Sharia Based Zakat Savings Account Opening

2. Nisab Eligibility Met, But Zakat Savings Below Required Amount

3. Nisab Not Eligible

If user selects "cairkan dana," the amount will be automatically transferred to the source account

If user selects "sedekahkan dana" the amount will be automatically donated to the chosen zakat institution.

4. Top Up via Zakat Dashboard

My Takeaways

Many users were unsure about nisab calculations, so we added clear prompts and explanations. Since gold prices and Baznas guidelines change, we made it easy to update those values. Users also wanted real-time balance tracking and clearer summaries to avoid confusion.

With user research, quick prototyping, and close collaboration with the sharia team, Tabungan Zakat now makes saving and giving zakat simple and reassuring. Early feedback shows users feel more confident, informed, and are actively using the feature.

1. Auto Rollover: Makes it easy for users to keep their zakat savings going each year without needing to start over.
2. Personalized Reminders: Friendly prompts that help users stay consistent with their zakat savings without having to think twice.
3. Smart Budgeting Tools: Lets users see how much they’ve saved and plan their contributions more wisely.
4. Sharia Product Integration: Connects Tabungan Zakat with other BSI features like Hajj or Qurban savings, so everything works together smoothly.

Thank You For Reading My Case Study 😊

Skola (Learning Management System)