760+

₦85M+

in Transaction value

Transaction count

Successful transaction

₦28M+

With just 20 onboarded merchants since first release, the platform processed over 760+ transactions, totalling ₦85M+ in transaction value, including ₦28M+ in successful transaction value.

Backstory

Business operations are the cornerstone of economic sustainability. With its widespread presence across West Africa, FirstBank set out to empower both existing and prospective merchants by offering convenient, dependable and accessible payment solutions. FirstChekout became a vital product for the bank helping merchants track business performance, diversify payment options, and even establish an online storefront for enhanced market reach.

During the 2020 pandemic, FirstBank, like many institutions saw a sharp rise in transactional activity within business accounts. But these were treated as routine transactions rather than a source of insight: merchants were using their FirstBank accounts for basic transactions while relying on external platforms to monitor business performance. That reliance was a real risk to the bank, and the opportunity behind FirstChekout.

As Product Designer, I was responsible for creating interactive interfaces with a seamless experience. This involved:

• Communicating directly with product owners on key requirements and criteria for implementation

• Working with developers to support effective product development

• Presenting ideas and prototypes to project stakeholders

• Creating responsive design

The process involved

The project team produced the output; the business team converted that output into outcomes and benefits. We ran sessions with the business team to understand key problems merchants had encountered, how those problems created opportunities, who the competitors were, and the overall goal for the project all worked against a target delivery date.

To kick off discovery, we hosted a 3-day session in Lagos, Nigeria, dedicated to problem identification, analysis and requirement gathering, involving stakeholders across marketing, project management, product, sponsors, and business analysis.

Solution exploration

The problem

Merchant onboarding required validating businesses against FirstBank's compliance standards. As a highly regulated bank, this meant collecting a thorough set of documents, a process that risked putting users off before they'd experienced the product. To address this, we moved validation into the app itself: merchants could sign up easily in a "Test" mode with restrictions, explore the platform's capabilities, then transition to "Go-Live" mode once they provided the required documentation. The compliance flow was broken into three steps: account validation, merchant information, and document upload.

Ensuring the legitimacy of businesses onboarded on Firstchekout

Developing easy access to key features merchants utilise often

Research showed users consistently returned to a small set of core actions. This shaped the "Get Started" section of the app, giving users a shortcut to: product catalogue, developer tools, API keys, payment links, payment settings, and virtual accounts.

Equipping merchants with capacity to offer several ways of receiving sales income

The product prioritises giving merchants several payment options for their customers, including cards, BNPL, USSD, QR, Pay Attitude, Firstmonie wallet, and a one-time virtual account generator via a FirstBank account.

Equipping merchants with a store that enables them to sell products

This feature brings a merchant's full business operations into the product, letting them sell and manage products directly, while also serving as a marketing tool to reach more customers.

Merhcant Configuration

Merchants can configure how the platform works for their business: which currency they deal in, which payment channels they use to collect income, how settlements are made, and how they receive transaction details. 

APIs and Webhooks

For merchants who don't want to use the FirstChekout store directly, this feature lets them connect FirstChekout's payment channels to their existing website.

Context - The main risk was merchant attrition, the bank losing account holders, and the transaction value they represent, to other industry players offering better tools.

During the 2020 pandemic, FirstBank, like many other institutions, faced larger transactional activities happening within accounts most especially for businesses. However, these just seemed like regular transactions. This created room for merchant empowerment. 

Recognizing the reliance of merchants on external payment platforms posed as a major threat to to the bank. Hence, the need of FirstBank to embark on developing a comprehensive solution to provide reliable and integrated payment services for merchants. This initiative aimed to address gaps in merchant services, enhance operational efficiency, and drive mutual growth and success.

Highlighting key business metrics

On the dashboard, merchants get a real-time view of business performance: an overview of processed transactions (value and volume), payment method utilisation, transaction status, and settlements. I also created a prototype to test how users would interact with this page. Research at this stage combined market research, requirement gathering, information architecture, rapid prototyping, and A/B testing.

Studying user behaviour is important but knowing how to turn an opportunity into value is what matters most. Consistent observation is essential to a product's growth. Being involved in this project as a first-year designer also gave me valuable context on how to communicate effectively with stakeholders, including using RACI and stakeholder mapping

Key learnings