Micro Merchant App

WORLDPAY | 2017

The Micro Merchant App is an online signup for small businesses using Worldpay’s services, limited to certain SIC codes and under $150K annual volume.

Project Overview

  • Title: Micro Merchant App

  • My Role: UX Lead (Design & Research)

  • Team: Product Manager, Inside Sales Rep Team, and the Marketing Department

  • Duration: 6 months

  • Impact:

    • The new Micro Merchant App freed the Inside Sales Team to focus on larger prospective merchants, boosted customer NPS by 2 points, and raised customer satisfaction.

    • Signup abandonment dropped 15%—the largest improvement since allowing merchants of all sizes to sign up online

    • Our team was honored as Worldpay’s 2017 Team of the Year for this work

Context & Problem Definiton

  • Background: Worldpay’s signup starts online but requires Inside Sales to finish by phone, collecting extensive documents like tax returns and bank statements. Unlike competitors such as Square and PayPal, Worldpay lacks a fully online, streamlined process—creating a competitive disadvantage and high application abandonment.

  • Target Users: Small business owners in a specified list of industries

  • Problem Statement: How do we deliver a superior signup experience to competitors like PayPal and Square, reducing abandonment and converting more leads—addressing 400+ lost prospects in 2017 alone?

  • Constraints: Updating our business model to shift from requiring extensive documentation (tax returns, financials) to deferred underwriting, enabling short online applications with 20 fields or less for micro merchants

Research & Discovery

  • Methods: Shadowing, Interviews, and Concept Validation

  • Key Insights: My research showed a four-step flow was the simplest way to present the online application:

    • Collecting customer information

    • Selecting equipment and pricing

    • Collecting business information

    • Account setup

  • Impact on Direction:

    • Identified how to simplify Worldpay’s onboarding process so an online application was sustainable

    • Validate if the proposed solution actually encouraged users to fill out the application online instead of calling an Inside Sales Rep

Phase 1

Phase 1 – Proposal

Partnered with leadership to define MVP, identifying which SIC codes could be supported online given federal regulations

Phase 2 – Process Design

Collaborated with Product and Inside Sales to redesign the application for a fully online, self-service experience that encouraged completion without rep assistance

Phase 3 – Pricing Structure

Developed standardized, profitable pricing structures to replace negotiable rates offered by Inside Sales

Phase 4 – Concept Testing

Conducted contextual inquiries by observing Inside Sales negotiations to inform design, then tested the prototype with targeted SIC code customers via unmoderated remote sessions on UserTesting

Ideation & Design Process

View the Axure prototype for these initial designs here.

Step 1

Collects basic information and verifies eligibility based on processing volume and SIC code

Step 2

Customer selects equipment and pricing

Step 3

Customer provides business information

Step 4

Collects detailed business information and ask them to sign necessary documentation to complete account setup

Final Solution

The high-fidelity prototype was finalized and can be viewed here.

The Marketing team launched the new signup flow on Worldpay’s site with supporting ads, freeing Inside Sales to focus on larger merchants (doing more than $150k in volume per year).

Results included a 2-point NPS increase, higher customer satisfaction, and a 15% drop in abandonment—the largest improvement since launching their online sign up application to all merchants.

Additionally, my team members and I were awarded Worldpay’s 2017 team of the year for the creation of and work we did on this app. We saw a need and successfully executed on it.