Infrastructure for Speed: The New 60-Second Merchant Activation Flow
How Surfboard’s new agentic flow takes merchants from sign-in to selling in seconds.
The “Activation Gap” in Platform Payments
For platforms and ISVs, signing up a merchant is only half the battle. The real challenge is activation — getting that merchant from “Signed Contract” to “First Transaction.”
Traditionally, this phase is a friction point. It involves manual terminal configuration, complex IP settings, and often, a flood of support tickets to the Partner’s helpdesk. Every minute a merchant spends struggling with setup is a minute they aren’t processing volume.
We’ve rebuilt the onboarding infrastructure to solve this. We are introducing a new, out-of-the-box Merchant Portal flow that uses a totally new flow to automate the setup and elevate the user experience.
Introducing: Setup. Simplified.
We started with a foundation of solid, standardized UX—clean lines, clear instructions, and a logical progression. But we realized that even the best UX hits a wall when the user has to do manual labor (like finding logo files or typing serial numbers).
That is where the AI steps in. We used AI to “top up” the experience, adding the final layer of magic that removes the friction entirely. Here is how we turned a 20-minute struggle into a 60-second flow.
1. Your Brand, Instantly.
The merchant types in their website URL. That’s it.
Our AI analyzes their public digital presence, pulls their brand assets, optimizes them for the terminal screen, and applies them automatically. By the time they look at their device, it looks like them.
2. Pair Your Device in a Heartbeat
We replaced complex setup configuration (the “standard” way) with a seamless digital handshake. The merchant simply scans a QR code. The system creates a secure link instantly. It turns a technical task into a simple consumer action.
3. Boost Earnings with Tips
We didn’t just want to make the setup fast; we wanted to make it profitable. We integrated the tipping configuration directly into the flow. This ensures that the very first payment you take is optimized for revenue.
The “Magic” Moment: Real-World Verification
This is the ultimate confidence builder. The flow guides the merchant to perform a real transaction using their own card.
We changed the script:
→ Try a real payment: The merchant uses their own card on their own phone/terminal.
→ See the magic: The payment runs through the live rails (verifying the entire chain), but our intelligent system detects the setup context and auto-voids the charge immediately.
→ The benefit: The merchant gets 100% confidence that their system is live, without the risk of accidental charges.
Why Speed Matters
We designed this flow to drive efficiency. Early testing of this new flow has shown incredible results compared to industry averages:
→ Setup Time: Reduced by ~85% (From approx. 15 mins to <2 mins).
→ Support Tickets: A drastic reduction in “Help, I can’t connect my terminal” inquiries.
→ Merchant Confidence: 100% of users who completed the “Real Payment” verification proceeded to active trading immediately.
White-Label Ready: Your Portal, Out of the Box
We know that for our Partners, brand consistency is key. While the terminal screens can reflect the Merchant’s brand, the portal interface itself comes out-of-the-box styled in the Partner’s colors.
You don’t need to build an onboarding UI from scratch. We provide this intelligent infrastructure, fully skinned to look like your native environment. It is a premium extension of your platform.
Catch the Wave
By fusing standardized UX patterns with AI capabilities, we allow your merchants to focus on what they do best: selling. And we allow you, our Partners, to focus on scaling, rather than support.
This is more than just a setup guide; it’s an infrastructure upgrade designed to accelerate your platform’s growth.
The new experience is available now for all new merchants at surfboardmerchant.com
→ The Upgrade: We’ve released a new setup flow for new merchants.
→ The Approach: We combine standardized UX with AI magic—like auto-scraping brand assets from a URL—to eliminate manual friction.
→ The Safety: A “Real Payment” test with intelligent auto-void validates the setup instantly.
→ The Impact: Reduces merchant setup time by ~85%, significantly lowering support costs and accelerating Time-to-Revenue for your platform.