A case study ledgerPagar.me

Designing a bill payment feature that reduced churn by 12% among online merchants

Bill payment flow in the Pagar.me dashboard, shown on a phone screen (Portuguese UI): a list of registered bills with due dates and amounts, and a button to pay.
Bill payment flow

TL;DR

I led the design of a bill payment solution integrated into our existing payment gateway platform, from discovery to delivery. Working with a cross-functional team, we reduced monthly churn by 12% over the 90 days after launch.

−12%

Monthly churn among online merchants, from 30% to 26.4%

23,000

Active merchants in the base

Context

Pagar.me started as a reliable payment gateway for online merchants in Brazil. As the business grew, the goal shifted from just processing payments to offering a full suite of financial and banking tools, becoming an essential part of merchants' daily operations.

Opportunity

Our user research showed that merchants preferred handling all financial tasks in one place. But Pagar.me didn't yet support key daily workflows like paying bills, which pushed merchants to competitors and increased churn risk.

Ifwe add a bill payment feature to the existing dashboard,

thenmerchants will keep their entire financial routine on Pagar.me, lowering their operational costs and reducing our churn.

Approach

Generative research

Facing many open questions, I led qualitative and quantitative research to understand online merchants' core banking needs, their workarounds, their pain points, and the financial management services they used most.

Summary of the user survey results (Portuguese UI): charts breaking down which financial tasks online merchants handle outside Pagar.me and how often.
User survey
User interview insights grouped by category (Portuguese UI): sticky notes clustered under themes like bill payment habits, workarounds, and trust in other banking apps.
User interviews

I started with bill payment because 66% of the merchants we surveyed used it, more than any other financial service. Scheduled payments and partial payments stayed out of the first release to keep it on schedule.

Benchmarking

I analyzed and documented the bill payment experiences of several financial institutions to learn their strengths and weaknesses.

Benchmarking

Benchmark board comparing bill payment flows from Square, Stone, Nubank, and other financial institutions, with screenshots and short notes on strengths and weaknesses of each.
Square, Stone, Nubank, and others

  • Information architecture

    I designed flows that match the user's mental model: bill selection, review details, confirmation.

    Bill payment information architecture A flow map animates in. Start leads to Bill selection, then Review bill details. From there the user either confirms, which ends at Success, or edits, which loops back to the review step.

  • Wireframes and prototypes

    I tested wireframes early with users and iterated on usability and clarity based on their feedback.

    Wireframes and prototype of the bill payment flow A phone screen starts as a dashed wireframe, then resolves into a high fidelity prototype. A tap opens a bill, a description field is added and filled in, and the payment is confirmed.
Bill payment flow, information architecture
  1. Bill selection
  2. Review details
  3. Confirmation

First iterations and user testing

After mapping the main use cases, I brainstormed a few solutions and gathered feedback from the team. After a few iterations, I tested the solutions with real users.

First iterations

Early dashboard iterations of the bill payment screens (Portuguese UI): several wireframe variations of the bill list, selection, and confirmation steps, side by side.
Tested with real users, iterated on feedback

Key findings from usability testing

Major points that stood out from the test sessions:

  • Show the balanceShow the balance before and after payment.
  • Show who paidShow which user made the payment.
  • Let users add notesLet users add a description to the payment.

Outcome

Monthly churn among online merchants fell by 12% over the 90 days after launch, from 30% to 26.4%.

By streamlining the payment process with an intuitive interface and user-friendly features, the feature made bill management more convenient and accessible.

Bill payment onboarding modal in the Pagar.me dashboard, shown on a phone screen (Portuguese UI): a short explanation of the new feature with an action button.
Onboarding modal

With bills paid inside Pagar.me, merchants no longer had to move money to another bank first, so they stopped paying for those transfers. The result was an easier financial routine and higher retention.

Completing a bill payment in the Pagar.me dashboard (Portuguese UI): a confirmation screen showing the bill amount, due date, and payment source.
Completing a bill payment

Beyond that:

Rec

−12%

Monthly churn among online merchants, from 30% to 26.4%

Post launch
Rec

23,000

Active merchants in the base

Active base

Next, I would add scheduled payments and partial payments, so merchants can plan cash flow inside Pagar.me.

End of tape

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