In the payment process, an order may experience one or more failed transactions before ultimately succeeding. When an initial payment attempt fails, retries can happen for many reasons, including but not limited to:
Customers attempting to pay again using the same or a different payment method
Automated dunning systems or recovery systems that retry failed payments for subscription or recurring transaction model businesses
This process of making multiple payment attempts is known as "retrying." When a transaction succeeds after one or more failed attempts, it's referred to as a "recovery."
Retry and recovery definitions
Attempt 1: The first transaction for an order
Retries: Any subsequent transactions for the same order
Recovery: A successful transaction that occurs after one or more failed attempts
Retry analysis
Retry analysis provides merchants with an aggregate view of order success rates across multiple attempts. This analysis helps in understanding the effectiveness of retry strategies and the potential for recovering seemingly lost sales.
What retry analysis shows
Success rate at first attempt (Attempt 1)
Recovery rates for each subsequent retry (Retry 1, Retry 2, etc.)
Similar to authorization rates, these metrics can also be measured through count (number of orders) or volume (sum of order values successful at each attempt/retry).
Retry success example
Consider an order with the following transaction history:
Transaction 1 (Attempt 1): Failed
Transaction 2 (Retry 1): Failed
Transaction 3 (Retry 2): Failed
Transaction 4 (Retry 3): Failed
Transaction 5 (Retry 4): Successful
In this scenario, the order was recovered on the 4th retry (5th transaction overall).
Benefits of retry analysis
Optimize Retry Strategies: Determine the most effective number of retry attempts
Improve Cash Flow: Understand the value recovered through retries
Enhance Customer Experience: Minimize payment friction by identifying and addressing common failure points
Increase Overall Authorization Rates: By recovering potentially lost sales through effective retries
By leveraging retry analysis, merchants can make data-driven decisions to improve their payment processes, recover more sales, and ultimately enhance their bottom line.
Failed order flow analysis overview
To provide a more detailed view of the retry process and its outcomes, we offer a Sankey chart representation. This visualization helps you understand the flow of orders through the retry cycle, including changes in payment methods and abandoned orders.
What the chart shows
The Sankey chart helps you visualize the following:
Initial payment attempts that can be broken down by various parameters including payment method, card type, and card scheme
The flow of failed orders into retries, including what payment method, card type, or card scheme was used for a subsequent transaction
Changes in payment methods during retries
Success rates of retries with different payment methods
Orders that were abandoned after a failed attempt
How to interpret the chart
The Failed Order Flow Analysis is a quick visualization tool to understand your customer checkout experience and more specifically identify if there are any specific patterns to why customers drop off after a failed attempt.
If you notice that there aren't any retries, reach out to our team. It could be because of the way you have integrated with your payment provider that is showing each retry as an independent transaction, or it could also be because your customers aren't retrying at all.