Case study
PayPal: Becoming the Default at Checkout
We needed to feature PayPal as the option the consumer wanted to use, and convert the transaction for the merchant.
This work is proprietary to PayPal. Flows are shown generically and in person only, so they are not reproduced here.
The stage
PayPal partners with the top 100 merchants. The job was the checkout in front of them.
What was unclear
PayPal showed up differently at every checkout.
Each merchant integration carried its own patterns. Across vaulting, express, and standard flows, the experience changed from one surface to the next: app switch versus web, first time versus returning. That inconsistency worked against PayPal's top priority, greater checkout prominence to grow TPV.
What I clarified
One proposal per merchant, on a weekly sprint.
On the Merchant Enablement team I produced a proposal package for each merchant. Each one mapped the current checkout against a clearer target state across the four entry contexts, Wallet, Express, Standard first time, and Standard return, and the major variants: app switch versus web, Pay Later versus Pay in Full, passkey, and vaulting.
Every package was the same stack: a screen audit, the complete checkout flows, a working prototype, a prototype video, and the decks for the merchant conversation.
Who I influenced
The package was what the team took into the room.
PMs and design leads used it in merchant conversations. I worked from PM briefs, with Principal Designer review and peer review inside a senior team. The proposals fed the merchant pitch for brands including Home Depot, Nintendo, Target, Best Buy, TikTok Shop, Chewy, and Microsoft.
What changed
Twenty-plus packages in my first six months, and the tooling to hold the pace.
The tooling was not part of my assignment. To hold the weekly pace, I built a browser brief form and a Figma plugin on my own initiative. The plugin assembles a per-merchant checkout flow, and assembly went from 30 to 60 minutes down to about 30 seconds across the 38-merchant program. The work ties back to the TPV priority: make PayPal more prominent and more consistent at the point of payment.
- 20+Proposal packages shipped
- 30sAbout 30 seconds to assemble a flow, from 30 to 60 minutes