The challenge
Reece's primary lever for reducing overdue accounts was shifting customers from in-branch payments to online. But for sole traders and mobile-first customers moving between job sites, the web payment experience inside maX wasn't usable on a phone - and that cohort was the most likely to let their account slip.
90% of online account payments were happening on desktop. Research told us why: customers didn't trust themselves to accurately make payments on a small screen. That resulted in overdue accounts, preventing tradies from buying the materials they need to complete jobs.
Customer problem
As a tradie on the tools, I want to pay my Reece account on the go, but I don't have confidence making large payments on a small screen, because I'm worried I'll make a mistake and spend the rest of the day sorting it out.
Business problem
Online payments were constrained to desktop sessions, limiting Reece's ability to capture payments on time - creating credit risk and branch staff diverted into debt collection.
"I don't trust my plumber's fingers, I'd rather do all business admin on the laptop."
- Trade customer
Discovery
Understanding pain points
I conducted customer research to understand why mobile payment uptake was so low despite strong overall mobile usage of maX. The core insight was straightforward: trade customers didn't trust themselves to accurately enter large payment amounts on a small screen. The fear of an error on a payment of $10,000 or more was enough to push them to a desktop - or to a branch. When branch visits didn't happen promptly, accounts went overdue. The problem wasn't awareness or intent; it was that the experience asked too much of people in a high-stakes moment.
Scope challenge
Stakeholders were strongly in favour of adding automatic payments (direct debit) as part of this initiative - customers had expressed interest. Before designing for it, I ran a fake door experiment to test actual intent. The result: fewer than 1% of eligible customers would activate automatic payments. Given that account payments regularly exceed $100,000, the CX risk of a misfire was significant. I used this data to make the case to deprioritise automatic payments, redirect the build effort, and protect customers from a feature that looked popular in principle but wouldn't be used - or worse, trusted - in practice.
The solution
I designed a ground-up native payment experience for iOS and Android, not a responsive adaptation of the web flow. The design centred on two principles: make it easy to review what you're about to pay before you commit, and make it unambiguous that a payment has been submitted. I introduced clear confirmation states, prominent in-progress indicators, and layouts optimised for one-handed use on mobile. The experience shipped across 3 iterative releases over 6 months, with usability improvements validated at each stage.
Results and impact
The shift from a near-desktop-only behaviour to a majority-mobile one reflects more than a design improvement - it reflects a fundamental change in when and how customers pay. Trade customers can now settle accounts from the job site, between calls, in the moments that suit them. Fewer deferred payments means fewer overdue accounts - and a meaningfully better credit position for Reece.
in account payments processed via maX mobile in FY25
of all online account payments at Reece now happen on mobile
mobile payment share after native payments launched
Crutially, the 26% of customers who use Accessibility features on their phone, such as enlarged text, are now able to do so in maX because the UI uses native iOS components.
What this demonstrated
This initiative showed that the gap between "customers say they want a feature" and "customers will actually use it" matters enormously when the stakes are high. The fake door experiment on automatic payments was the deciding factor in redirecting effort toward what would genuinely move the metric - a native experience customers would trust.
It also showed what's possible when design is given the space to challenge scope before build begins. A smaller, better-scoped initiative delivered a significantly larger outcome than a larger one would have.