How Direct Deal works
See how IVOTIA Direct Deal becomes available in chat, what the buyer must accept before unlocking it, how the fee is paid, and what changes once contact sharing is enabled.
Updated: 2026-06-05
Before Direct Deal can be used
Direct Deal is buyer-initiated and starts from a conversation that has already had enough meaningful discussion. IVOTIA checks the current message count before allowing the buyer to proceed.
If the minimum discussion requirement has not been met, the buyer cannot continue to the unlock flow yet.
The buyer must accept the waiver first
Before payment, the buyer must explicitly accept the Direct Deal waiver. The current waiver confirms four points: that the key terms have been discussed in chat, that IVOTIA will not manage payment or delivery like escrow, that the unlock fee is non-refundable, and that the buyer accepts responsibility for continuing independently.
Without that accepted waiver record, IVOTIA will not create the unlock-payment session.
How the unlock fee is paid
The buyer then moves to the Direct Deal payment step. The current implementation processes the unlock payment through Paystack.
The amount charged is the Direct Deal access fee stored on the waiver record. The payment modal also shows the gateway amount and processing fee details before the buyer completes payment.
What happens after a successful payment
When the payment succeeds, IVOTIA marks the conversation as unlocked, records the Direct Deal unlock timestamp, and marks the waiver fee as paid.
At that point, contact sharing is enabled for the conversation and both sides can continue outside the stricter locked-chat limitations.
What Direct Deal does not do
Direct Deal does not create a normal escrow-backed order and does not mean the main transaction value has been paid through IVOTIA.
It only unlocks the conversation for a lower-protection off-platform continuation. The actual purchase or service arrangement then happens outside the protected checkout flow unless the parties go back and use a standard IVOTIA order instead.
When the unlock flow is blocked
IVOTIA blocks the flow if the buyer has not accepted the waiver, if the conversation is already unlocked, or if the Direct Deal fee was already paid for that conversation.
In those cases, there is no second unlock step because the conversation already passed that stage or does not qualify yet.