Insights / E-commerce

M-Pesa checkout: what a good flow looks like

Devaltech · 5 min read

Most M-Pesa checkouts fail in the same place: the moment after the customer taps pay, when nothing on screen tells them what to do next. The payment itself is the easy part.

Tell people what is about to happen

Say that a prompt is coming to their phone, show the number it will come from, and keep the amount visible. Then keep the page alive while you wait - a spinner with no words reads as a broken site.

Handle the unhappy paths

Prompts time out, PINs get mistyped, balances fall short. Each of those needs its own message and a way to try again without rebuilding the cart. Reconcile against the callback, not the browser, so a closed tab never loses a paid order.