Mobile Money: Human-Centered Design Lessons for intuitive B2B Payment Experiences

When Kenya embraced mobile money, it turned the mobile phone into a trusted financial tool. M-Pesa transformed everyday transactions by tapping into simple, intuitive interactions. Today, that same approach offers a blueprint for B2B payments—where leveraging familiar habits not only reduces friction but also drives impactful metrics like Total Payment Volume (TPV).

Lessons from M-Pesa: The Power of Human-Centered Design

M-Pesa is a pioneering mobile money service that allows users to send, receive, and store money using their mobile phones. Launched by Safaricom in Kenya, it has transformed the financial landscape by providing accessible financial services to millions of unbanked and underbanked individuals.

Before M-Pesa, most Kenyans managed their finances with cash and informal methods. Traditional banks were distant and costly, and people trusted familiar processes—even if they were inefficient. M-Pesa’s success lay in its ability to integrate with these everyday behaviors. It mimicked a text message—a simple, clear, and familiar interaction—allowing users to send money quickly without overhauling their established routines.

This behavioral mechanism—capitalizing on what people already do—was at the core of M-Pesa’s design. Instead of expecting users to learn an entirely new system, M-Pesa created a service that felt like a natural extension of their daily lives. The platform’s simplicity, combined with the power of network effects (where one person’s adoption led to another’s), resulted in rapid and widespread use.

For B2B payments, this means designing systems that don’t force finance teams or procurement managers to abandon their trusted workflows, but rather enhance them.

Applying These Principles to B2B Payments

Streamlining Supplier Portals with Familiar Interfaces

Consider a typical supplier portal in a large manufacturing firm. Today’s portals often demand manual data entry, multiple logins, and the constant juggling of PDFs and emails. A procurement manager may receive hundreds of invoices in various formats, all requiring time-consuming verification against purchase orders. This process is not only inefficient but also prone to human error.

A human-centered B2B payment solution would integrate directly with the company’s ERP systems, automatically capturing invoice data and reconciling it in real-time. The interface should mirror the clean, familiar layouts that finance professionals have come to trust, reducing the need for repetitive manual tasks. This approach respects existing behaviors while delivering a seamless, intuitive experience that shortens the payment cycle and minimizes costly errors.

Enhancing Treasury Management with Real-Time Visibility

Many CFOs and treasurers today still depend on spreadsheets and delayed bank feeds to monitor cash flow. This fragmented approach leaves them working with outdated information, hampering swift decision-making. Imagine a treasury management dashboard that aggregates data from multiple bank accounts and internal systems via API integrations. With this tool, treasurers could view real-time cash positions, track supplier payments, and monitor disbursements with the clarity of a text message’s simplicity.

Such a dashboard would enable instant alerts when cash levels deviate from forecasts, empowering finance teams to act quickly in response to market changes. By offering a design that is both intuitive and reliable, the platform transforms how businesses manage liquidity, turning an often cumbersome process into a dynamic, strategic advantage.

Effortless KYB Processes with Automation and Integration

Onboarding new suppliers is another area with tremendous opportunities for a better user experience. Current Know Your Business (KYB) processes require manual submission and repeated verification of documents like registration papers, tax records, and compliance certificates. This slows down supplier onboarding and adds friction to the entire payment cycle.

A modern payment platform can streamline KYB by automatically pulling data from government registries and compliance databases. By pre-populating forms and instantly verifying documents, the system not only accelerates the onboarding process but also reduces errors and frees internal teams from redundant work. This approach not only improves the user experience for suppliers but also builds trust and speeds up the integration of new partners.

Measuring UX Impact Through Key Business Metrics

A well-designed B2B payment platform does more than just simplify workflows—it directly influences key financial metrics that drive business performance. One of the most important of these is Total Payment Volume (TPV).

Total Payment Volume (TPV)

TPV represents the total monetary value of all transactions processed through the platform over a given period. As businesses see increased ease of use and faster processing times, TPV is likely to rise—a clear indicator that the platform is becoming a trusted tool for financial operations.

For example, if a manufacturing firm experiences a 20% month-over-month increase in TPV after adopting a streamlined payment solution, that directly translates to improved cash flow and reduced operational costs.

Other Critical Metrics

• Conversion Rates: High conversion rates—from trial to regular use—signal that the platform’s design effectively meets users’ needs. A conversion rate increase shows that more businesses are choosing to adopt the solution because it fits naturally into their established routines.
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): A lower CAC, when balanced against a higher lifetime value of customers, indicates that the platform’s ease of use and integration help attract and retain users cost-effectively.
• Retention Rates: When a payment platform is designed around human behaviors, users are more likely to remain loyal. High retention rates not only reduce churn but also build long-term relationships that drive recurring revenue.
• Transaction Success Rate: A near-perfect success rate ensures that payments are processed reliably every time. This reliability is critical for building trust, particularly when even a small percentage of failures can lead to significant revenue losses.
• Support Response Time: Fast, effective customer support reinforces user confidence. When issues are resolved quickly, users are less likely to experience disruptions that could negatively affect their operations.

These are a direct reflection of how well the user experience is translating into business outcomes. A platform that is intuitive and aligned with human behaviors can boost TPV, reduce operational costs, and drive overall growth.

The Strategic Imperative of Human-Centered Design in B2B Payments

Business leaders must understand that human-centered design is a critical strategy that ties directly into business performance. When a payment solution is designed with the end-user in mind, it not only enhances efficiency but also drives adoption, customer loyalty, and measurable financial gains.

Finance teams and payment executives must recognize that every enhancement in user experience—be it a simplified supplier portal, a real-time treasury dashboard, or an automated KYB process—translates into better business outcomes. Improved TPV, higher conversion and retention rates, and reduced CAC all contribute to a healthier bottom line. In an environment where every minute of processing time counts, the simplicity and clarity of a well-designed platform can make all the difference.

WDIR, Your Partner Simplified B2B Payment Experiences

At WDIR, we are dedicated to harnessing the power of human-centered design to transform B2B payments. We know that when you build solutions that respect and enhance existing behaviors, the impact is both immediate and profound—driving not just operational efficiency but also real business growth.

If your current payment processes are mired in inefficiencies or if you see untapped opportunities for improvement, we can help. Partner with WDIR today to build a payment platform that is intuitive, reliable, and perfectly aligned with your business needs. Contact us today!