Decoding Merchant Experiences:
A Study of Aeropay's Merchant Portal
Role: Lead UX Researcher | Timeline: 7-8 weeks
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Skills:
Interview Design
Participant Recruitment
Data Analysis
Research Planning
Survey Design
Data Visualization
Background.
Aeropay, a Chicago-based FinTech startup, specializes in facilitating bank-to-bank (ACH) transfers, allowing businesses to accept compliant, cashless, and contactless payments. While venturing into other domains, Aeropay primarily serves as a payment platform in the cannabis industry, both online and within dispensaries across the nation.
Within its array of offerings, the Aeropay Merchant Portal (AMP) stands out as a significant product catering to merchants. AMP falls under the umbrella of store business accounts, serving as a digital platform that offers a comprehensive overview of store transactions. Users can leverage its insights to analyze data from various store locations and customer interactions, enhancing their business management.
Within this context, the term "merchants" pertains to Aeropay's B2B retail clients. This study focuses on three pivotal merchant groups: regional managers, direct store managers, and retail employees, often referred to as Budtenders in the cannabis industry.
Challenge
Even though the Aeropay Merchant Portal (AMP) has been up and running for over a year, the company hadn't really taken a deep dive into how merchants actually experience using it. This was a bit risky because we didn't know if there were any hidden problems or difficulties that merchants were facing when using the tool. So, we needed to figure out exactly what was going on to make sure the product was working as smoothly as possible.
Goal: Figure out what merchants need, improve the tool's usability, and enhance users’ overall satisfaction
Methodology
I started by engaging with key stakeholders—the Client Success and Revenue teams—to gain insights into the perspective of merchants using the AMP. To comprehend user interactions with store business accounts, like the AMP, I delved into a literature review, competitive analysis, and AMP flow audit for secondary research. Building upon these insights, I conducted user interviews with Aeropay merchants who don't use the AMP, followed by two surveys aimed at assessing the understanding and utilization of the tool from current AMP users.
As the lead and sole researcher for this project, my primary responsibility involved orchestrating the complete end-to-end research process, crafting a comprehensive survey, and closely collaborating with the Client Success and Revenue teams. This collaborative effort involved engaging with influential figures such as the Chief Revenue Officer, Enterprise Account Director, Director of Client Success, and the Head of Partnerships.
Gather Assumptions from the Client Success Team
My approach began with one-on-one interviews with members of the Client Success (CS) and Revenue teams. I aimed to capture their perspectives on merchant sentiments toward Aeropay and the Aeropay Merchant Portal (AMP). After sharing an overview of their feedback, we collectively identified key actions, decisions, and research targets. This process facilitated a comprehensive understanding of merchant beliefs about the company and the tool, as well as the teams' expectations for user interactions.
Given Aeropay's size, its CS and Revenue teams directly impact the AMP experience for merchants. Interviews revealed a shared perspective within the CS team: merchants generally view the portal positively, some even favoring it over competitors. However, the CS team identified areas for improvement, such as enhancing holistic reporting capabilities, scalability for enterprise clients, and self-service features.
Research Planning
Using the insights I collected, I crafted a research plan outlining clear and achievable research objectives and questions. These were informed by the team's assumptions and viewpoints. Additionally, I identified these assumptions as aspects to verify through external secondary research.
To ensure a well-structured approach, I devised a project timeline that factored in all the intended goals. As the primary researcher, I considered the comprehensive scope and allocated time estimates, ultimately gauging that the research process would span around 7 to 8 weeks from start to finish.
Literature Review
In addition to addressing the primary research questions, the literature review aimed to validate the existing perceptions and assumptions of the Client Success and Revenue teams regarding store business accounts. Some of the questions the literature review sought to answer were:
When people make/use digital payments what kinds of orders are they making?
How do retailers prioritize common revenue-impacting factors when choosing a digital payment platform?
What is the impact to the merchant experience of providing a daily executive summary with key metrics in the merchant portal?
What are the available features at the different access levels and does it align to the information needed?
To what extent does a digital payment platform’s support feature impact retailers' decisions to use one?
During the review I looked at several credible digital sources such as Shopify, Nerdwallet, Flowhub, McKinsey, Statista and UX blogs. I meticulously reviewed each article twice – first to grasp its content and then to extract relevant notes and quotes for inclusion in the final research report and presentation. This process ensured a thorough synthesis of insights to inform our approach.
Competitive Analysis
Conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis, I examined five financial institutions that offer store business accounts, two of which were tailored for the cannabis vertical, within the payments industry. To holistically assess these offerings, I established evaluation criteria and distilled the essential components of each competitor's flow into a digestible Google Slides presentation. This encompassed outlining the flow's pages, their purpose, and the potential impact of design choices on user behavior. The evaluation criteria looked at features such as Refund Management, Tip Management, Location Management, Employee Management, Reports, Payment Links, and Subscription Set-Up.
My assessment involved dissecting each competitor's flow through visual aids, utilizing screengrabs to depict user interactions and highlight influential UI elements. This analysis allowed me to pinpoint overarching strengths and limitations of their designs and provide the designers and developers with links to video captures or walkthroughs for them to reference.
Aeropay Merchant Portal Design Audit
This audit involved examining both the currently deployed version of the tool that Aeropay merchants are familiar with, as well as the in-development designs encompassing upcoming features. For both iterations, my focus was on understanding how design choices could influence user behavior. This involved a thorough comparison against the market standard, particularly the consistent features and UI elements found in competitor flows, as detailed in a clear Google Slides presentation.
My evaluation involved a careful review of each version's flow, employing screengrabs to visually depict how users can navigate their business operations within the AMP. I pinpointed UI elements that affected the user experience while identifying specific aspects that aligned with the established market standard set by competitors.
The audit yielded crucial insights, revealing that while the AMP possesses certain unique features related to adhering to Cannabis regulations, it generally lacks distinctive functionalities that set it apart from its rivals. When juxtaposed against the features of competitors identified during the competitive analysis, it became clear that the AMP faces notable gaps in holistic reporting capabilities, customization options for subscriptions, and sections addressing business specifics, document references, employee management, and privacy/security settings. These findings echoed the feedback I had received from the Client Success and Revenue teams, reinforcing the need for targeted improvements.
Interview Design
Incorporating insights from the Client Success and Revenue teams and building upon the secondary research findings, I aimed to conduct interviews with Aeropay merchants who were acquainted with store business accounts but hadn't utilized the AMP. The objective was to gain deeper insights into their expectations regarding such a tool. To structure the interviews effectively, I first identified the target merchants, selected a scheduling tool, formulated interview questions, sent out invitations, and then engaged in one-on-one interviews with each merchant via Google Meet. The platform facilitated the hosting, recording, and transcription of the interviews. Calendly proved valuable for scheduling and inviting merchants, streamlining the process. The Product team assisted in identifying two available dispensary managers for interviews, minimizing the need for additional recruitment efforts.
Some of the survey questions were:
Please describe how the staff is trained to use new store software.
What would make training your staff easier?
What tasks should a store business account enable you to perform?
Which metrics or insights regarding your store do you consider to be the most important?
Survey Design
In this project, surveys were adopted as a practical substitute for conducting more user interviews due to constraints in accessing AMP-using Aeropay merchants. While I acknowledge that survey responses may differ from interview insights, akin to how text messages yield different conversations than phone calls, the consistency in the feedback obtained enhanced the validity and utility of the results. Based on insights from the Client Success and Revenue teams, along with secondary research findings, I crafted two surveys targeting user experience and validating the applicability of FDX and competitor market standards to the AMP. One survey focused on managers and the other on retail employees. I structured both surveys using a funnel-like approach, progressing from broader questions to specific ones. After creating initial drafts, feedback from the product team refined the questions, ensuring precise targeting.
Some of the survey questions were:
Please describe the onboarding experience for you and your staff with the Aeropay Merchant Portal. (Open Question)
What tasks are you trying to achieve with the merchant portal? (Open Question)
What is preventing you from completing those tasks? (Open Question)
How do you train your staff to use the Aeropay Merchant Portal? (Open Question)
Directly tapping into Aeropay’s client list, the Client Success team facilitated participant recruitment for the survey. This recruitment approach resulted in 7 managers and 4 budtenders participating, with recruitment guided by clear criteria to ensure active AMP users were included.
Analysis and Synthesis
Using Google Sheets, I documented and organized the questions, question types, responses, immediate observations, and insights from the survey. This approach facilitated seamless sorting and comparison of open-ended, usability, and multiple-choice questions. I then integrated the findings from the secondary research and focused on synthesizing information that directly addressed our research questions.
It's worth noting that the number of responses from the budtender surveys was notably lower in comparison to the manager surveys. As a result, the collected data might not represent the broader experience of all budtenders in the cannabis industry or those specifically utilizing Aeropay. Nevertheless, both budtenders and managers generally exhibited positive sentiments regarding their Aeropay experience, expressing a preference for it over alternative options. They highlighted the straightforward nature of the training process and found the tool to be largely intuitive. While desiring more structured documentation and video tutorials for ongoing support, they didn't propose significant changes to enhance usability.
Impact:
The research report and presentation I delivered addressed crucial questions our teams had, aligning with market standards and enhancing the user experience on the platform. Following the final project presentation, I initiated discussions about the next steps each team, including key stakeholders, intended to take in implementing or assessing the project's recommendations.