Shopify
Self-serve recovery for merchants with at-risk financing
BACKGROUND
Shopify Capital offers flexible loans with daily repayments based on sales. If sales drop unexpectedly, merchants may risk not repaying their balance by the end of the loan term. Previously, to address this, the Capital Recovery team would request supplemental payments through PayPal by manual email outreach.
SOLUTION
A self-serve recovery flow that is integrated into the existing Capital dashboard where merchants can independently set up recurring or one-time payments.
Automatic eligibility
Merchants automatically qualify for self-serve recovery after certain conditions are met, like failed repayments or sustained sales drops. An in-app banner and email notify them to set up payments, allowing setup of payments without any Recovery team intervention.
Multiple ways to pay
Merchants can set up recurring monthly payments or schedule individual ones. Monthly payments offer peace of mind with a predictable schedule, unaffected by daily sales fluctuations.
First, merchants choose the payment type and bank account, then enter in payment details.
Next, they review their selection, agree to the payment terms, and submit their scheduled payment.
Managing payments
The merchant can track all their recurring and scheduled one-time payments under a single page, along with all past payments for easier accounting.
Payments from multiple bank accounts
Shopify Capital initially allowed repayments from one bank account, causing issues if funds were insufficient. Self-serve recovery now lets merchants pay from multiple accounts, which can be saved for future use, offering greater flexibility.
SUMMARY
My role
I was the sole designer on this project, working with a team of 1 product manager and 2 engineers to brainstorm, ideate and implement a solution that would reduce the operational burden of our finances recovery team. I was involved in the process from end to end, including design reviews, engineering handoff and QA of the final builds.
Pain points during discovery
Despite payment instructions, the Recovery team received 200+ monthly inquiries
Only 10% of merchants submitted payments on their own after receiving the email
PayPal service fees added up to hundreds of thousands of dollars for Shopify
Product objectives
Inform merchants and encourage action when their financing is at risk
Move the repayment flow out of PayPal to reduce service fees
Provide greater flexibility with repayment options and bank accounts
Outcome
This feature rolled out to 100% of merchants in October 2023, and within the first 2 weeks of launch we saw the number of merchants who had submitted recovery payments increase from 94 to 240, a 250% increase. The Recovery team has noted a marked decrease in inquiries from merchants looking to submit recovery payments. The majority of recovery payments (86%) are now being created by merchants independently which has significantly decreased the operational burden on the Recovery support team.