Our new Dynamic Retries feature uses machine learning to determine the best time to reprocess failed payment attempts
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Our new Dynamic Retries feature uses machine learning to determine the best time to reprocess failed payment attempts
In ecommerce, ensuring successful payment transactions is essential for a multitude of reasons. When a payment is declined — due to a processing failure, an expired credit card, or another issue — a company runs the risk of not just losing a sale, but a valued customer due to frustration or loss of trust stemming from the failure.
The Damage of Declines
How damaging can it be? According to an industry report, 62% of customers who experience online payment failures will not return to the website. For software companies that rely on subscription models, declined payments can also lead to involuntary churn (i.e., when customers unintentionally fail to renew a subscription, usually due to billing issues).
With transaction decline rates as high as 30% in some industries, the threats of lost revenue and fleeing customers should have any business utilizing ecommerce on high alert.
Overview: Dynamic Retries
At Cleverbridge, we are committed to best-in-class involuntary churn prevention through our Revenue Retention Tools. Among these tools is Dynamic Retries, which leverages machine learning to determine the optimal times for scheduling payment reattempts after an initial payment decline.
In many instances of payment failure (e.g., card limit exceeded, missed payment, flagged for fraud), the consumer will ultimately resolve the problem themselves and attempt the transaction again. In other cases, the consumer does not immediately retry the transaction. That’s where Retry Logic comes into play in an attempt to automatically reprocess failed payments.
There are two main types of Retry Logic:
Static Retries (SR): An automated process that follows a predetermined schedule (e.g., every two days), reattempting the transaction multiple times if necessary.
Dynamic Retries (DR): A machine learning-based approach, which enhances the likelihood of successful payment processing through optimized scheduling.
With Cleverbridge’s Dynamic Retries feature, businesses can recover up to 10% more declined transactions than static retries.
How it Works: AI-Powered Retry Logic
Dynamic Retries represent a significant leap forward in payment recovery strategy. By analyzing factors including a customer’s location, transaction currency, and payment method, the system can predict the best moment to retry a failed payment, thereby increasing the likelihood of success and minimizing the risk of involuntary or “passive” churn.
Cleverbridge’s AI-powered model predicts the best times for retry attempts by identifying patterns in historical transaction data. For example, retries for certain customer cohorts may be more successful within the first few days of a month, whereas the 14th day of the month may be better for other cohorts depending on whether they have monthly or bi-weekly paycheck intervals. The system evaluates these nuances in real time, ensuring higher accuracy and success.
Static Retries vs. Dynamic Retries
The chart below illustrates how the likelihood of retry success fluctuates — for traditional Static Retries vs. Dynamic Retries — over a 30-day period following a failed transaction.
The red dots represent a static retry schedule targeting days 2 and 5 when the probability of success is suboptimal. In contrast, Dynamic Retries selects days with the highest likelihood of success (in this example, days 11 and 21). This dynamic approach optimizes the retry process and maximizes recovery rates by adapting to real-time transaction patterns.
Proven Impact on Revenue Recovery
The implementation of Dynamic Retries has delivered strong results for our clients. On average, clients leveraging Dynamic Retries recover 7.8% more purchases representing a 36% relative improvement in purchase recovery rate compared to Static Retries. This significant uplift not only boosts immediate revenue recovery but also contributes to long-term customer retention and higher CLV.
Enhance Your Revenue Retention with Cleverbridge
Dynamic Retries is just one component of Cleverbridge’s broader strategy to help technology companies reduce involuntary churn. Other Revenue Retention Tools, including Account Updater, Expiration Date Checker, and Dynamic Rerouting, are all designed to work together, ensuring payment processing failures never result in lost sales or customers.
If you’re ready to leverage AI-powered tools to reduce churn and increase your profitability, contact Cleverbridge today.
Want to learn more about our Revenue Retention Tools? Click here.
