Error Analysis

Understand why transactions have failed

When a payment fails, it isn't a simple "declined" vs "approved" outcome. Every declined transaction comes with insights from both the card issuer and the payment service provider, but understanding these signals in isolation tells only part of the story.

Let's consider a common scenario: A transaction fails with a "Insufficient Funds" error. While this seems straightforward, the true insight lies in understanding:

1. Is this occurring more frequently with specific card types?
2. Does it happen more often during certain times of the month?
3. Are particular customer segments or geographies more affected?

Error Analysis in Transactions provides a dynamic, multi-dimensional view of transaction failures that lets you:

1. Visualize Error Distribution
2. See a comprehensive breakdown of all error types
3. Instantly identify your most common failure reasons

Drill Down with Context

Rather than just seeing that 30% of failures are due to "Insufficient Funds", you can break this down by:

1. Card type (seeing if prepaid cards are disproportionately affected)
2. Geography (identifying countries with higher failure rates)
3. Time patterns (revealing end-of-month spikes)
4. Transaction amount ranges
5. 3DS flag and so on..

Revenue Impact Analysis - Quantifying the Cost of Failed Payments

Beyond understanding the distribution of errors across your transactions, it's crucial to measure their financial impact on your business. This deeper analysis comes in two forms, each serving a specific purpose in optimizing your payment strategy.

Average Revenue Impact

Understand the typical financial value at stake for each error type by calculating the average transaction value affected.

Why it matters:

When you see that 3DS authentication failures average $300 per declined transaction while insufficient funds errors average $75, it immediately reveals which issues deserve priority attention. This insight becomes even more powerful when combined with the parameters we discussed earlier - imagine discovering that 3DS failures specifically impact high-value transactions from premium customers in certain geographies.

Last Seen Error

Track the final error that leads to order abandonment when customers attempt multiple payments.

Why it matters:

Consider a $500 order where a customer first encounters a 3DS authentication failure, retries and faces an insufficient funds error, and finally abandons after a "Do Not Honor" response. While all three errors occurred, the "Do Not Honor" response was what ultimately cost you the sale. This pattern recognition helps identify the true breaking points in your payment flow.

Using These Insights by combining both metrics, you should be able to :

• Prioritize error types based on their true business impact
• Develop targeted retry strategies for high-value transactions
• Optimize payment flows for specific customer segments
• Make data-driven decisions about payment routing rules
• Improve customer communication at critical failure points

Each of these metrics can be analyzed across all the parameters discussed earlier - card types, geographies, 3DS flows, customer segments, and more - providing a comprehensive view of how payment failures impact your revenue.