Merchant onboarding and first shipment
When to use it
Section titled “When to use it”- You run a logistics platform or courier for businesses (online sellers, shops, shippers), and many sign up but never send a parcel.
- New merchants should get a call from an account manager quickly, and quiet ones should be noticed before they leave.
- Your platform can send an event when a merchant creates a shipment.
Where the data comes from
Section titled “Where the data comes from”| How | What |
|---|---|
| A form people fill in | The Merchant sign-up form this playbook creates: business name, contact, phone, email, monthly volume and city. Put its link on your website, WhatsApp and sales material. |
| Events from your app or website (needs a developer) | Your platform sends an event for each shipment a merchant creates: that is how the nudge and the check-in know who is shipping. If merchants sign up in your app, it can also send a sign-up event instead of using the form. |
What it sets up
Section titled “What it sets up”| Kind | Name | What it does | Lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Account managers | Calls new and quiet merchants; gets the monthly report. | Empty |
| Form | Merchant sign-up | The merchant sign-up form. Saves the business name, volume and city on the merchant. | Draft, not published |
| Segment | No shipment yet | No shipment created in the last 14 days. | Ready |
| Segment | Active merchants | Created a shipment in the last 30 days. | Ready |
| Segment | Quiet merchants | Shipped in the last 90 days but not in the last 30. | Ready |
| Template | Welcome merchant (SMS) | Welcome SMS. | Ready |
| Template | Welcome merchant (email) | Welcome email with how to get started. | Ready |
| Template | Send your first shipment (SMS) | First-shipment nudge by SMS. | Ready |
| Question | Report: new merchants | New merchants in the report's period. | Ready |
| Question | Report: merchants shipping | Merchants who created a shipment in the report's period. | Ready |
| Report | Monthly: merchants | Last month's new merchants and merchants shipping, how many are active or quiet now, and the state of the calls, sent to sales. | Off |
| Follow-up | Merchant 1: new merchant (form) | A new sign-up on the form gets a welcome and an account manager call task due the next day. | Off |
| Follow-up | Merchant 1: new merchant (app) | A merchant who signs up in your app gets a welcome and an account manager call task due the next day. | Off |
| Follow-up | Merchant 2: first-shipment nudge (form) | Three days after a form sign-up, a nudge to send a first parcel, if they haven't. | Off |
| Follow-up | Merchant 2: first-shipment nudge (app) | Three days after an app sign-up, a nudge to send a first parcel, if they haven't. | Off |
| Follow-up | Merchant 3: quiet merchant check-in | A merchant who stops shipping for 30 days gets an account manager check-in; stops when they ship again. | Off |
The questions it asks
Section titled “The questions it asks”| # | Question | Default | Fills in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What should messages call your logistics company? | none, must answer | org_name |
| 2 | How do merchants sign up? Choose form if they use the sign-up form, or app_events if your platform sends a sign-up event. | form | signup_via |
| 3 | Which team calls new merchants and quiet ones? (account managers, or one person) | Account managers | sales_team |
| 4 | Where do merchants create shipments? (your app or merchant portal) | none, must answer | app_url |
| 5 | Which event means a merchant created a shipment? | Shipment Created | shipment_event |
Other settings
Section titled “Other settings”These have defaults. Change any that don’t fit.
| Setting | Default | Key |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant sign-up event | Merchant Signed Up | signup_event |
| Monthly shipment ranges on the sign-up form | Under 50 parcels a month, 50 to 200 parcels a month, Over 200 parcels a month | volume_ranges |
| Number merchants call to reach sales | ‹workspace phone› | sales_phone |
| Hours an account manager has to call a new merchant | 24 | call_due_hours |
| How long to wait before the first-shipment nudge | 3d | nudge_delay |
| Hours an account manager has to check in on a quiet merchant | 48 | checkin_due_hours |
| Sender address | ‹workspace default_sender› | email_from |
| Default phone country on the form | ‹workspace country› | default_country |
| Time zone for the report | ‹workspace timezone› | timezone |
| Monthly sales report | 0 8 1 * * | report_cron |
| Greeting when a first name is missing | there | greeting_fallback |
Timings
Section titled “Timings”- A new merchant gets the welcome SMS and email straight away, and a call task for Account managers due in 24 hours.
- 3d after sign-up, a nudge by SMS if no Shipment Created has happened. It stops as soon as one does.
- A merchant who has shipped in the last 90 days but not in the last 30 gets a check-in task, due in 48 hours.
- Monthly sales report: 0 8 1 * * in ‹workspace timezone›.
Channels
Section titled “Channels”| Channel | Needed for | Before it can send |
|---|---|---|
| sms | The welcome and the first-shipment nudge | An SMS provider, or Origamy managed SMS after business verification (KYC). |
| The welcome with how to get started | A verified sending domain for ‹workspace default_sender›. |
What you need to do
Section titled “What you need to do”- Send Shipment Created from your platform for every shipment a merchant creates, with the merchant's phone number as a trait. Without it the nudge goes to everyone and the check-in never fires.
- If merchants sign up in your app, send Merchant Signed Up with business_name, monthly_volume and city as traits. If they use the form, publish it.
- Add people to the Account managers team. A task assigned to an empty team reaches nobody.
- Use the same phone number for the merchant on the form and in your platform, so Origamy matches them as one person.
- Tell merchants when they sign up that you will contact them about their account.
- Verify the sending domain, connect an SMS provider or finish business verification, switch the follow-ups and report on, and test with your own phone.
- Send
Shipment Createdfor every shipment, with the merchant’s phone as a trait, so Origamy can tell who is shipping. Use the same phone number on the sign-up form and in your platform; otherwise one merchant becomes two people and the nudge still goes to someone who has shipped. - If merchants sign up in your app instead of the form, send
Merchant Signed Upwithbusiness_name,monthly_volumeandcityas traits and choose app events when the playbook asks. - The first call matters most. B2B merchants usually decide within a week, so keep the call task short and due within a day. In Nigeria and across Africa, many sellers run on Instagram and WhatsApp, so ask for their WhatsApp number on the call and message them there as well.
- The merchant’s business name and contact are business data, but they are still personal data in most countries. Say on the form how you will use them.
This playbook is synthesized: no customer has run it with us yet. If you build it, tell us what you changed, and we’ll replace it with the real version.
Copilot eval
Section titled “Copilot eval”The request used to test the copilot on this playbook (a live eval):
We're a delivery platform for online sellers. Make a merchant sign-up form with business name, contact name, phone, email, monthly parcel volume and city. When someone signs up, text and email a welcome and give our account managers a task to call within 24 hours. If they haven't created a shipment after three days, text them a nudge, and stop when they do. If a merchant who was shipping hasn't sent anything for 30 days, give an account manager a task to check in. Our platform sends a Shipment Created event. Send our sales team a monthly report of new and active merchants.
It passes when every piece is a valid draft and everything lands off, with at least: form, segment, workflow, message_template, report.