Mercado Pago - Sellers QR

Context & Problem

Merchants entered the QR onboarding journey through three different acquisition channels:

• Web onboarding

• In-app onboarding

• Promotional field campaigns (“Polos”)

Each cohort received different communications and timelines, which created a fragmented activation experience. As a result, many merchants stalled before reaching the key activation milestone: their first successful payment. After 10 days in the onboarding funnel, 40% of merchants still had zero approved payments, indicating a significant drop-off between QR association and the first transaction.

Business goal: Increase merchant activation by helping sellers complete their first payment within 10 days, a milestone strongly correlated with long-term retention.

Opportunity Mapping

To better understand the problem, we mapped the full onboarding lifecycle across merchant behavioral states:

• merchants with 0 payments

• merchants with 1 payment

• merchants with 2+ payments

This helped us identify where merchants stalled and where lifecycle interventions could guide them toward completing their first transaction.

Activation Funnel Insight

Analyzing onboarding cohorts revealed that the largest drop-off occurred around day 7, when many merchants had received the QR kit but had not yet processed their first payment. We discovered three key issues:

• Conceptual confusion: Many merchants believed that associating the QR code automatically meant they could start receiving payments.

• Lack of guidance: The onboarding experience did not clearly explain how to complete the first transaction.

• Messaging mismatch: Existing communications reused consumer-oriented language instead of practical merchant instructions.

Merchants responded much better to action-oriented messaging, such as:

• Print your QR

• Finalize setup

• Test your first payment

  
  

Solution

To address these issues, we redesigned the merchant activation journey by introducing a behavior-triggered lifecycle communication flow. Instead of static onboarding messages, communications were triggered by merchant actions and payment states, guiding sellers step-by-step toward their first successful transaction. The redesigned journey focused on four key moments:

• QR kit delivery

• QR association

• first payment attempt

• post-activation engagement

In-App Activation Entry Point

We introduced contextual in-app prompts encouraging merchants to purchase or activate their QR kit directly from the Mercado Pago home screen. This reduced friction between discovering the QR solution and starting the activation process.

QR Association Experience

We also implemented behavior-triggered push notifications to guide merchants through the activation process. For example, merchants who had received the QR kit but had not yet associated it received reminders explaining the next steps. These notifications were designed to be task-oriented, focusing on concrete actions merchants needed to take.

We simplified the QR association process with a guided setup flow. The interface clearly explains the steps required to activate the QR kit:

1. Open the Mercado Pago app

2. Scan the QR code

3. Enter the association code

4. Place the QR in the store

   
   

Merchant Activation Journey

The lifecycle communication flow guided merchants through activation milestones.

• Day 0 – Shipping confirmation: Merchants receive a same-day dispatch email confirming shipment of their QR kit and prompting them to finalize the QR association.

• Day 0–3 – Activation guidance: Push notifications and FAQ emails explain how to link and activate the QR code.

• Day 3 – First payment reminder: If the merchant has zero approved payments, a push notification encourages them to process their first transaction.

• Day 10 – Reactivation email: If activity remains low or only one payment has been registered, a reactivation email encourages continued use.

• Day 90 – Promotional rate expiry: A push notification informs merchants when promotional processing rates expire.

Deliverables

Design work included:

• lifecycle email redesigns

• push notification flows

• educational FAQ content

• in-app activation banners

• onboarding messaging improvements

  
  

Outcomes

The redesigned activation journey improved key adoption metrics:

• increased QR associations

• improved first-payment conversion within the first 10 days

• reduced activation drop-offs in the onboarding funnel

Key Learning

For merchant payment products, the most critical moment in onboarding is not account creation but the first successful transaction. Designing lifecycle communication around merchant behavior rather than static timelines can significantly improve activation and long-term retention.