TL;DR: Most payment processors think they've modernized onboarding by moving forms online. But digitizing paperwork isn't automation. It's cosmetic surgery on a broken process. Here's what real automation looks like and why it matters for your growth.
In the rush to modernize merchant onboarding, many payment providers have fallen into a trap. They've taken the paper application process and simply made it digital. Instead of filling out a form with a pen, merchants now fill out a form on a screen. But behind the interface, very little has changed.
This is not automation. This is digitized paperwork.
Most "digital onboarding" tools are just online versions of a PDF. The branding might look better. The forms might be mobile responsive. But what happens after the form is submitted is where the problem lies.
Behind the scenes, staff are still manually reviewing uploaded documents. Risk teams are chasing signatures and working from spreadsheets. Sales reps are following up by email to get missing information. Operations is triaging incomplete applications in shared inboxes.
The process is slow, error-prone, and resource intensive. Just like it was before the digital facelift.
While these forms may look modern, the experience for the merchant hasn't improved. They still face confusing requirements, long delays, and limited communication. They still don't know whether their application has been received, reviewed, or rejected. And they still don't understand why they need to upload a void cheque in 2025.
Modern merchants (especially tech-forward businesses) expect onboarding to be as smooth as signing up for Stripe, Shopify, or Slack. Anything less feels archaic.
If your onboarding feels more like applying for a small business loan than joining a payment platform, that's a problem.
Most teams underestimate how expensive this pseudo-automation really is.
According to Mastercard, the average cost of onboarding a merchant is $250 USD. That figure includes staff time, support tickets, rework, compliance handling, and systems overhead. And that's before the merchant processes a single transaction.
McKinsey reports that 35% of merchants drop out of the onboarding process due to delays or poor user experience. That means one-third of your sales pipeline is being lost. Not because of risk rejection, but because of avoidable friction.
The cost isn't just operational. It's commercial.
True automation doesn't begin with a form. It begins with data.
A truly automated onboarding process:
When done correctly, it removes human labor from the standard approval path altogether while keeping humans in the loop for true exceptions.
When merchant onboarding is slow or inconsistent, it doesn't just frustrate users. It slows down revenue. Sales reps lose deals. Merchants churn before activation. Risk teams get overloaded. And your entire processing volume plateaus.
Speed isn't just a user experience concern. It's a growth lever.
Fast, accurate onboarding translates directly into more activated merchants, more transactions, and greater stickiness. And it reduces the burden on your internal teams at the same time.
Today's merchants don't want to feel like they're applying for a mortgage. They want to plug in, connect, and go. The best onboarding flows feel invisible. They guide the user without getting in the way.
When onboarding is seamless, it builds trust. When it's painful, it creates doubt.
The companies winning in this space aren't just compliant. They're user-first. They treat onboarding as a product experience, not a checklist.
Some teams resist full automation because they're worried about compliance or fraud. But automation doesn't mean compromising on standards. In fact, it often enhances them.
Real-time screening tools can verify PEPs and sanctions lists instantly. AI models can flag inconsistencies or identity mismatches before they reach your review team. Structured data makes audit trails easier to maintain.
Automation doesn't eliminate oversight. It eliminates inefficiency. And it makes your risk processes more scalable, not less rigorous.
At Gratify, we rebuilt onboarding from the ground up. It doesn't rely on PDFs or manual staff reviews. It doesn't pause for back-office handoffs. And it doesn't make merchants guess what to do next.
Instead, merchants get a guided, dynamic experience that adjusts based on their inputs. Our system enriches their data, verifies it across multiple sources, and scores it in real time. For most applicants, there's no need for staff intervention. For edge cases, exceptions are flagged with complete context and recommended actions.
This isn't just faster. It's better for both the merchant and the processor.
If your onboarding process still requires someone in your operations team to review every form submission, you're not automating. You're digitizing. There's a difference.
True automation means systems are doing the work, not people with inbox rules and checklists.
It also means freeing your team to focus on real risk management, not document collection and validation.
A slick web form isn't the same as an automated onboarding system. You haven't modernized just because your application isn't in PDF format anymore.
If your goal is to grow (more merchants, faster activation, less friction), then your onboarding process needs to go beyond digitization. It needs to be re-imagined entirely.
Ready to See What Real Automation Looks Like?
We rebuilt merchant onboarding from scratch. No PDFs, no spreadsheets, no email handoffs. Just real-time decisioning, automated verification, and a merchant experience that feels effortless.
Talk to our team to see the difference between digitization and true automation.
ISOs processing 1,000 merchants/year spend $250K on manual onboarding. See your numbers.
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